Dance of Death
by Chosen Twilight
Summary: Roxas had always thought the fictitious vampire stories in books, the movies and the like were just that: fictional. He never thought they could become reality, and he certainly never expected to find himself right in the middle of one. AU. Akuroku xigdem
1. Chapter 1

Bass beats reverberated through Roxas' body, creating a dull pounding matched by the fading and intensifying of the various co

**Title: **Dance of Death

**Summary: **AU.Roxas had always thought the fictitious vampire stories in books, the movies and the like were just that: fictional. He never thought they could become reality, and he certainly never expected to find himself right in the middle of one.

Main pairing is akuroku, though there will be some minor xigdem in the future, and possibly sokai. Very brief mention in this chapter of almost sort of Pence x Olette (Penlette? Rofl) but not really. Rated T.

**Disclaimer: **Kingdom Hearts and all the characters therein belong to SquareEnix and Disney, not yours truly.

Chapter One

Bass beats reverberated through Roxas' body, creating a dull pounding matched by the fading and intensifying of the various colored strobe lights in the club. This was one of the many reasons he had never been a real fan of nightclubs; he didn't like the haze of confusion that the intricate light patterns and loud music created. But then, he supposed most people didn't come to clubs to think, at least not with their heads. As his best friend Hayner, ever a master of rhetoric, had put it the day before on the bus ride home, a club was the perfect place to pick up chicks, "…or guys, you know, if you swing _that _way." The blonde had never been able to quite wrap his mind around Roxas' preference of his own gender. But he had never complained about it, or judged. After all, between Roxas' sexual preference and their other friend Pence's not-so-secret crush on Olette- the final and only female member of their group, who Hayner could never see as anything other than one of the guys, regardless of the reproductive organs she possessed- he could practice his womanizing tendencies freely without fear of any competition from his best friends.

And it was because of Hayner that Roxas found himself sitting at a small table in the back corner of the _Sunset Swagger, _the one nightclub in town, which was generous enough to let minors through its door one Saturday night a month, under the stipulation that the alcohol be replaced by sodas and shirley temples. Hayner had raved all of the hour long bus ride back to Twilight Town from their school in Radiant Garden (the town's population was too small for a school system of its own, so they had to attend a regional one) and then the whole walk to their usual spot as well, of how this was an absolutely ideal opportunity for their social lives. Pence and Olette had immediately jumped on the opportunity to do something with their Saturday night other than watch the sunset (which their town admittedly had a beautiful view of, but sometimes if you've seen one you've seen them all). Roxas was not entirely convinced, but it wasn't like he had anything else to do with his weekend, or anyone else to spend it with.

Which came to another reason that Roxas' didn't particularly like clubs. The people. It wasn't that he didn't like people, not at all; he just found them tiresome. This may seem like a cruel statement to a normal person, but Roxas was not exactly normal, and he meant what he said not in an offensive way; it simply quite literally tired him out spending time around other people.

It had been difficult to notice when he was younger, or maybe just easy to ignore, after all then he had only ever spent time with his brother Sora, and it was considered normal by most for twins to have a special sort of connection. So his kindergarten teacher had been the first to notice. She'd called a conference with Roxas' parents and the guidance counselor, explained what she had been noticing on various occasions; a girl would fall and scrape her knee and Roxas would begin to cry, or the problematic child would throw a fit over being given a time out, and Roxas would be found clenching his fists in anger under the table. Similar circumstances were occurring daily, if not several times during a day. The guidance counselor had tried to calmly explain that this was normal, that some children were more sensitive to their peers' behavior than others and they simply wanted to bring the situation to the Osmond's attention, but her tone was nervous, and unsure. Roxas had sat quietly in the seat between his parents, fidgeting madly as he was hit by the full force of their discomfort, and embarrassment.

Mr. and Mrs. Osmond were not the type of people that had a tolerance for abnormality. It was the reason Roxas was still deep in the closest with anyone except his closest friends and his twin. And the reason that the guidance counselor's advice that day had been thoroughly ignored. It just wouldn't do for their son to be seeing a psychiatrist. So Roxas never received any sort of diagnosis, and was discouraged from acknowledging his strange ability. But by now he didn't need a doctor to tell him what was different about him. He experienced not only his own emotions, but the emotions of the people around him as well.

And because of his parents he was forced to bottle that up, which was very taxing, and frustrating, and caused him to generally prefer avoiding people. Hayner, Pence and Olette had been persistent enough to get past his wall, and he'd even eventually informed them of his unique ability. It was decided to be the, "awesomest thing they had ever heard!" (Hayner's words) and the four of them had once even spent a summer trying to investigate it. They hadn't learned much, actually they learned absolutely nothing and most of the time they had been quickly side-tracked by a trip to the ice cream parlor or a struggle match (Hayner had a rather short attention span for research), but still it had been the most enjoyable summer Roxas had ever had up until that point, and they'd all been best friends ever since.

Of course, Hayner, Pence and Olette also understood that Roxas sometimes just had enough, and that it sometimes was better to just leave him to his own devices, especially when it came to large crowds. Like one might find at a nightclub. At the moment, the buzz of lust and nervousness and excitement and bad intentions coming from the copious amounts of people he was surrounded by were merely adding to the headache brought on by the loud dance music. He wasn't offended that the others had gone off to enjoy themselves without him; they didn't have the same irritating "handicap" to deal, and he just wanted to be alone anyway. So Pence and Olette were lost in the crowd out on the floor somewhere, dancing, probably in that less-than-platonic but not-quite-romantic way they had of doing things that thoroughly freaked Roxas and Hayner out. And speaking of the other blonde, Roxas could see him a few tables down, putting the moves on the umpteenth girl this evening. Roxas couldn't read lips, but still he could practically see the pick up lines on his lips as Hayner chattered away, "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?" "Do you have a map? I keep getting lost in your eyes." The girl did not look, or feel, impressed. Roxas had only said Hayner was a womanizer; he'd never claimed that the other boy was any good at it. With a roll of his eyes, Roxas turned his attention to scan the dance floor for Pence and Olette.

And that's when he spotted him. It was the hair that stuck out to Roxas at first, its bright red shade was certainly attention getting, and at first he was just staring out of curiosity, because it was just so unusual looking. But the man seemed to notice he was being watched, and spun around to face Roxas who came face to face with a pair of acidic green eyes. Normally when in a crowded place Roxas couldn't pick up on an individuals specific emotions unless he was very close to them, but at that moment as they made eye contact he was hit with a distinctive feeling, different from anything he'd ever experienced before, almost _inhuman._ He immediately realized what he was thinking, shaking his head at the incredulity of it. _Inhumanly beautiful maybe, _he thought, taking in the stranger's thin, pointed features.

The redhead got up from his seat, but to Roxas' disappointment he stalked (Roxas hated to further the monster analogy by using the term 'stalked', but there was really no other appropriate way to describe how the lanky man moved) into the crowd in the opposite direction of where Roxas was seated. Roxas was positive there had been a spark when they'd made eye contact, and the man had been giving him a look that suggested he was at least as interested in the blonde as the blonde was in him. He took it as a challenge. So he removed himself from his seat for the first time that evening and set out to search for the man.

Considering the noticeable color of the stranger's hair, and how tall he had appeared even from across the room, Roxas had not expected this to be difficult. But the redhead was nowhere to be found. Roxas thought back to his initial reaction, after all who was he to call someone else inhuman when he was the one with the allegedly supernatural ability? He'd never gotten that sort of feeling from anyone he had ever met before, but still, it had to be nothing more than his imagination. He wondered if Hayner was having much success as he was at the moment (or would be if he could just _find _the damn guy!). Maybe he would do better with Roxas' approach, 'Are you some kind of monster? Because you're beauty is absolutely inhuman.' Roxas' mouth curled up into a small smile, and he couldn't help but laugh a bit at his own inward joke.

"Something funny?"

Roxas froze. He'd never heard the voice before in his life, and it had come from behind him, but still he knew exactly who it belonged to. He turned around and came face to chest with just the man he was looking for, who was looking down at him with an amused smirk on his face.

"O-oh, no…I just, uh…"

Roxas groaned. He really hadn't thought this through well at all. Sure, he'd found the guy he'd been looking for, but now he found himself rendered incapable of forming coherent thoughts. He didn't even know what he should say, even if he were capable of stringing a sentence together. _Smooth, Roxas._

"Axel."

"…Huh?"

He smirk another perfect, beautiful smirk, "My name. It's Axel. Got it memorized?"

Roxas nodded weakly. That wasn't really too hard to remember, it was a pretty unique name. Everything about Axel was unique, it seemed, such as the aforementioned unruly hair, and the two little tattoos he had under his eyes that Roxas hadn't been able to notice from far away. But even when the distance between them and the flashing lights had skewed his image of the older man, his judgment had not been off; Axel was hot. Really hot. And Roxas might have been crazy for thinking it, but it almost seemed like he was quite literally radiating heat. Roxas wondered if it was true, and he reached out his hand to find out, not actually sure what he was going to do with it, but feeling a sudden, uncontrollable urge to touch the redhead regardless.

"Well?" Roxas' hand paused mid-motion, and he looked up at Axel in confusion. The redhead laughed a little, "What about you? Are you going to tell me _your_ name?"

Roxas blushed, embarrassed. He hadn't even introduced himself yet, and here he was thinking about groping the guy or something. "Oh, s-sorry. It's Roxas."

"Roxas." Axel repeated as if experimenting with the feeling of the name rolling off of his tongue, allowing it to hang in silence between them for a moment. Axel had a positively gorgeous voice, and it sounded even nicer saying _his_ name, Roxas noted, fairly disappointed that Axel had stopped speaking.

He gasped as two of Axel's slender fingers came to rest on his jaw line, and the flesh that had appeared so warm and inviting turned out to be ice cold. But he didn't pull his hand away, and it grew warmer rather quickly (probably because his face was so flushed, Roxas thought embarrassedly) so his skin was cool and smooth, almost like silk, as the hand traveled slowly down Roxas' face and came to stop on his neck. If Axel hadn't figured out just how nervous Roxas was yet he certainly would now, the blonde thought, because his heart was beating out of control and Axel's fingers were hovering right above his pulse.

And then he felt it; the emotion passed through his being as Axel's hand glided across his heartbeat only for a fleeting instant, but it was impossible to ignore. And like the first time he'd gotten a vibe from Axel it was unlike anything he had felt before, only this time the identity of the feeling was unmistakable. Hunger.

Roxas snapped his head up and their eyes met once again, but now his were wide with horror, and Axel's looked unsure. He quickly pulled his hand away, still giving Roxas a questioning look, waiting to gauge the blonde's reaction to what had just transpired between them.

Roxas was frozen in place, even though he was painfully aware that he should be running for his life. His initial impression of Axel no longer seemed so ludicrous, and he realized that he really was standing just inches away from a real, live monster. Suddenly, thankfully, he managed to find his legs and before he had time to think about it he was running in the direction of the exit as fast as he could.

He was shivering violently when he exited the club, though he wasn't sure if it due to his sweaty skin coming into contact with the crisp night air, or just entirely out of fear. He collapsed to his knees. Roxas was not the type to behave irrationally, and he realized he had acted rash, but given what had just happened he didn't think that anyone could blame him.

In retrospect he should have stayed inside the club, surrounded by people as he had been, but this realization didn't come until too late when he saw Axel's thin figure step through the doors. Now they were totally alone.

Roxas scrambled to his feet to run again, but icy fingers wrapped around his wrist and held him where he was.

"Let. Go. Of me!" Roxas yelled, struggling to free himself. But even as Roxas tugged with both of his arms, Axel's grip held.

Axel almost looked hurt by the way Roxas was fighting to get away from him, but it didn't stop him from holding on, "Just…give me a chance to explain myself. I'm sorry if I scared you or something, but, what happened back there? You were totally fine and then all of a sudden you freaked. Was I moving too fast?"

_Yeah, as if he doesn't know what happened. _Roxas gave his arm one final tug, but Axel just released him and his wrist slipped from the redhead's grip with ease. He didn't bother running again; Axel probably had some super speed or something that would make it useless anyway. Instead he just glared, not entirely sure where his sudden burst of courage was coming from, but deciding to just go with it, "What do you mean what happened? You were going to eat me!"

Axel stared at him like he'd suddenly sprouted an extra appendage, and it occurred to him just how nonsensical the statement sounded, even if it was the truth. "Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. You wanted to eat me…I felt it. My heartbeat made you _hungry._ You're a vampire!"

Axel was still gaping at him, looking even more shocked. Roxas felt his stomach drop a little as he considered for the first time the possibility that he could be completely wrong. His ability wasn't foolproof; it came down to his interpretation of people's feelings in the end, after all, and he'd definitely never used it to determine something like _that_ before. But somehow, he just knew that he wasn't wrong, and Axel seemed to have recovered from his surprise now, smirking in that sexy way of his, "You knew, didn't you?" He found this humorous, apparently, as he was chuckling to himself, "From the moment you first saw me, you knew."

Roxas was about to protest, but it was the truth, really; he had known exactly what Axel was from the beginning, he just hadn't realized it. But he did realize exactly what Axel was getting at now. He was slinking slowly closer to Roxas, leaning down to whisper in his ear, "Didn't seem to bother you too much at first, hmm? Didn't stop you from approaching me."

Despite himself, Roxas could feel his face flushing again, "Y-yeah, well you were probably hypnotizing me or something."

Axel pulled back to look him in the eye, a goofy, lop-sided grin on his face. Roxas' face got redder- this time from embarrassment.

"You've been watching too many movies." Axel replied with a quick bark of laughter. Roxas sighed. So maybe that had been a stupid comment. But how was he supposed to know the difference between the real and fake aspects of fictional vampires, it wasn't like he'd ever met a real one before. Until a few minutes ago, he would have denied that they existed. Besides, it had been more of a hopeful statement than anything. He'd wanted to pass off his out of character and embarrassingly middle school-girlish behavior as a result of some sort of entrancing power on Axel's part. Apparently no such luck.

The truth was, from the moment he'd first laid eyes on Axel he was more attracted to the redhead than he had ever been to anyone else in his entire life. And even now that he knew it was stupid, and dangerous- possibly even life-threateningly so- he still was.

"Seriously, though," Axel suddenly continued, and both his tone and his features had in fact become quite serious, "You're not wrong, about what happened in there. And I really am sorry. I know better than to let my hunger take over me like that, even if it was just for a split-second."

Roxas was shocked speechless by that statement, both due to the gravity of the fact that Axel had admitted to really thinking about making a snack out of him, and also that the vampire seemed genuinely angry with himself about it. Wasn't that what vampires did, feed off of humans? Why would Axel berate himself for that?

And then Axel was moving in on him again, and this time he disregarded all boundaries, pulling Roxas into an embrace, rubbing soothing patterns into the boy's back with his cold hands, and nuzzling his face into golden blonde hair. Axel was feeling instantly more comfortable, Roxas noticed, almost as if the action was somehow familiar to him, which was peculiar because they had certainly never done this before. When Axel spoke, Roxas could feel the redhead's breath ghost across his scalp, "But you can't really blame me. You just smell so damn _delicious._"

Roxas shivered, but he ensured himself that it was out of nervousness that Axel was evaluating his taste, _not_ because of how sexy it sounded. Axel didn't say anything else, just stood there in that same position, clinging to Roxas and feeling utterly content for a few moments, and Roxas neither dared to try and pull away nor had any desire to. But then he was suddenly flooded with embarrassment that was not his own and Axel let him go, backing off quickly and scratching awkwardly at the back of his head. But he did not apologize for his forward behavior, just said with an uncomfortable chuckle, "Of course, it figures that the first time in all these years I find someone so irresistible I actually almost lose control, that he would be an empath."

Roxas had no idea what an empath was, and he was about to ask despite knowing that Axel's comment had been rhetorical, but the other continued before he had a chance, "So why exactly is an irresistible kid like you here all alone?"

Roxas had found that quite liked being called irresistible by Axel, when the implications were not food related. "I'm here with a few friends, actually, they were just off doing their own thing."

Axel frowned, "And they left you sitting there all by yourself?"

"Yeah, because I asked them to. What about you? No offense, but you seem a little old to be in high school."

A laugh, "Just a little. I came to scope out the competition. Unfortunately, no one told me that tonight was teenybopper night or whatever. Total waste of time," he smirked, "Or, at least, I thought it would be, but now I would say it was definitely worth it."

Roxas blushed. Axel was invading his personal space again, bringing their faces just an inch or so apart, "So what do you say? Can you forgive me?"

"I…I…" Roxas' eyes were focused on Axel's slightly pronounced canine teeth as the other spoke, well aware of just how close they were to his neck. His heart was pounding, and all of his blood seemed to be simultaneously rushing to his face as well as a certain other location. But just because his body was more than willing to forgive Axel and forget anything had ever happened didn't mean that it was the smart thing to do. Axel was a vampire; he was dangerous.

"Roxas are you alright? Pence and I saw you running out of the clu-" Olette, Pence and Hayner had taken that moment to come looking for him, it seemed, and by the look on Olette's face she had not been expecting to find him in a somewhat compromising position with another guy, "Oh! I'm sorry, we didn't mean to…interrupt anything."

Olette was blushing and studying her shoes, Pence was looking Axel over curiously and Hayner was staring wide-eyed at Roxas, who just smiled sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders. He was glad his friends had shown up when they had because he was starting to think Axel had been about to kiss him, and he doubted he would have been able to resist that.

"No, no," Axel replied, casually waving his hand to brush it off as unimportant, "I should probably take off anyway."

Axel ruffled Roxas' hair playfully and turned to leave, but stopped a few paces away, "Let me know. If I'm forgiven."

Pence waited until after Axel had disappeared from their sight to speak, "Forgiven for what?"

Roxas allowed himself a quick laugh at the thought of trying to explain to Hayner, Pence and Olette why he had really run from Axel, "Oh, he was just a little too forward with me at first. I got nervous."

Hayner rolled his eyes, "Man, that is so not fair. You don't even try and that guy's all over you. Me? Not a single girl all night."

"Oh, Roxas you're going to have to tell us _everything._" Olette gushed.

Roxas smiled, _Well, maybe not everything._

**Notes: **I probably should be starting another fic until my other works in progress are complete, but this plot simply wouldn't leave me alone. I really like how it's turning out so far, although this chapter was a little shorter than I would have liked.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: **Dance of Death

**Summary: **AU.Roxas had always thought the fictitious vampire stories in books, the movies and the like were just that: fictional. He never thought they could become reality, and he certainly never expected to find himself right in the middle of one.

Main pairing is akuroku, though there will be some minor xigdem in the future, and possibly sokai. Rated T.

**Disclaimer: **Kingdom Hearts and all the characters therein belong to SquareEnix and Disney, not yours truly.

This is not beta'd. I apologize for any spelling/grammar errors.

Chapter 2

Roxas arrived home that night with so many thoughts swimming through his mind he was positive he wouldn't get any sleep; but the myriad of things to think about seemed to have the exact opposite effect on him and suddenly it was quarter 'til noon on Sunday and he was still wearing his clothes from the night before. It was the first morning he had slept through breakfast-time in longer than he could remember.

He trudged slowly down the stairs, most of his body sore from passing out in an awkward position, and itchy and uncomfortable from sleeping all night in his daywear. The house was empty except for him, which meant that Sora was not only miraculously awake before him, but ready for the day and out of the house as well. That was certainly a first. Roxas remembered his brother mentioning something about a huge research paper due on Monday that he had left off to the absolute last minute. He was probably over his best friend Riku's house- the boy was a year old and had taken most of the same classes as Sora was in now last year- begging to borrow his copy of the report "just as an outline" or calling up his girlfriend Kairi asking for hints to get started.

Reaching the kitchen, Roxas discovered that the only remains of whatever his mother had made for breakfast that morning were the dirty dishes in the sink (which it was Sora's day to take care of, but Roxas resolved to do them once he was done eating, or else they would both be facing mom's wrath later that evening. He'd be tucking that favor away to hang over his brother's head in the future.) With a disappointed groan he settled on a bowl of generic, chocolate corn puff cereal.

Once the energy-providing sustenance was in his body Roxas was feeling much less zombie-ish, and he quickly finished doing the dishes, grabbing a banana on his way back upstairs so he wouldn't be fueling his whole day with nothing but pure sugar.

Roxas munched on his banana as he picked out his clothes for the day. He allowed his thoughts to drift back to Axel for the first time that morning, and shuddered as he thought about how different the redhead's last meal had probably been from his cereal and banana breakfast.

The events of the previous night had given life to a few questions in Roxas' mind, and he wanted answers sooner rather than later. So he rushed through his morning routine faster than he would have normally liked, settling for less than perfect hair and brushing his teeth no more thoroughly than absolutely necessary, and headed back downstairs into the office.

The disadvantage of his family only having one computer was that the had to juggle the use of it between all four of them, so there usually was no time to use it for anything other than strictly school and work purposes. But today Roxas was home alone, so not only could he make use of the computer to his hearts content, he could also play his own music as loud as he wanted while doing so.

He literally flopped down into the computer chair, much harder than intended, and cursed whichever member of his family had left it on its lowest setting, before reaching down to pull the lever and pump it back up to full height. Then he started up the LM.C playlist on his itunes and opened up the internet.

The thing that had been bugging Roxas the most was the word Axel had used to refer to him during their conversation: empath. Roxas really couldn't be sure, because Axel hadn't elaborated at all, but in context it seemed as though it may have something to do with his strange ability. If so, that was the closest thing to a clue as to exactly was up with him that he'd ever had. He knew he probably had bigger things to worry about at the moment, but the temptation to learn a little more about himself first was too great.

So he typed "empath" into the search bar on his homepage. Most of what came up were links to online dictionaries or encyclopedias, all discussing empathy. Not what Roxas was looking for. He knew about empathy; it was a natural human condition, and was Roxas was looking for definitely wasn't normal. He needed something more specific.

Three pages into his search the results were getting less and less relevant and Roxas was getting ready to give up. But at the last second he saw a promising one, with the word empath bolded at the end of the summary. He clicked it.

The link brought him to what was clearly a personal website, with a rather bland layout and nothing but one little crystal ball flash animation, and the words "Types of Psychics" in large letters at the top. Below that was a long list of definitions, and Roxas scrolled past terms such as _astrology, clairvoyance _and _divination_ before he saw it. _Empathy. _The same thing he'd been reading about all morning. But this site certainly appeared to be different than the others, so he continued on regardless.

A type of clairsentience. Essentially, the ability to feel the emotions of others. Empaths use the vibrations of other people and objects (animate or inanimate) to sense things that others cannot.

Roxas had to reread the little blurb several times before it was really able to sink in that he was looking at a perfect description of himself. He'd found it. After all these years of not really knowing who, or what, he was, there was the answer right in front of him. But, a psychic? Him? It was an obvious enough conclusion, one he probably should have come to on his own, but at the same time was still difficult to believe.

Of course, the website didn't have anything to tell him that he didn't already know, really, but at least now he had a starting point for learning more, and the sense of knowing himself a little bit better was nice. After rereading the definition once more just to be positive he hadn't imagined it he emailed the url to himself (He wouldn't risk book marking it on the family computer, lest his parents happen to come across it) and decided to move on with his search. Which brought him back to Axel.

Roxas had seen his fair share of vampire movies, though it was hardly his favorite genre. But as Axel had mentioned the night before, not everything in the movies was true. Roxas needed to separate fact from fiction.

Typing vampire into the search bar turned out to not be incredibly helpful- mostly all of what it brought up was web pages for the newest books and movies that were coming out soon, or occasionally the blog or myspace of some creepy goth kids. Hoping to narrow his search down a little better he tried 'real-life vampires'. This helped considerably, bringing up mostly articles and sites about the vampire legends of various different cultures. He began to read through the pages of information.

He was so engrossed in reading that he barely noticed the sound of the front door slamming closed, and at first he brushed it off as just his brother returning home. But a quick glance to the clock on the computer revealed that it was a little after four in the afternoon- apparently he'd been more into what he was reading than he'd thought because he'd had no idea that much time had passed- which was around the time his mother got home from work. He quickly closed out of the internet browser and cleared the history (again, it simply wouldn't do to have his parents know he'd spent the afternoon researching vampires of all things.)

"Hi mom!" He called out to her, leaning back in his chair so that his voice would better carry through the doorway.

"Oh, Roxas," She responded, presumably from the kitchen judging by the direction her voice had come from, "I wasn't expecting you to be home."

Roxas walked into the kitchen, where he did in fact find her, beginning to prepare dinner, "Yeah, I'm home. I was just finishing up some homework on the computer."

"So you didn't go out at all today?" His mother was getting curious now, and she dropped the lettuce she was washing momentarily, turning away from the sink to face him, scrutinizing his appearance, "You were still asleep when I left this morning, too, I was worried about that, are you feeling alright?"

She placed her hand against is forehead, but it was cold from the water so he doubted that it told her much of anything about his body temperature anyway. She was getting concerned now, he knew (because he was an empath, he thought with a swell of satisfaction). And he decided to play along with the notion of being sick, since it guaranteed she wouldn't pry any further into what he'd been doing that day. He was thankful that's he'd rushed through getting ready that morning, and as a result probably looked a bit more disheveled than normal, adding to his charade.

"Yeah, I dunno, I guess I just wasn't really feeling up to going out today, so I stayed home and studied a bit instead. I'm feeling much better now though, must have been a one day thing."

"Oh, you poor thing! Well, I'm glad you're feeling better, but I want you to get plenty of rest just in case. Why don't you go relax until dinner? And then you can go right to bed afterwards."

Roxas groaned. Maybe faking sick hadn't been the best idea. But there was no taking it back now, that would just make his mother suspicious. He nodded in agreement, and she kissed him on the forehead before returning to her lettuce, which had been lying forgotten in the sink.

His mother called him back down for dinner about an hour later, and she and his father were already sitting at the table when he got there. But the chair next to his was empty still; place not even set.

"Where's Sora?"

"He'd called about fifteen minutes ago," his mother answered, "He has other plans, and won't be joining us for dinner tonight."

Well, that was weird. There weren't many things Sora considered more important than food, especially not important enough to skip their mother's cooking for. "What's he doing?"

His father shrugged his shoulders, "Didn't say, exactly. Something with Riku."

After dinner Roxas flopped down face first onto his bed with a long sigh. He'd only taken the time to climb the stairs up to his bedroom and he could already feel the boredom from his confinement for the evening setting in. He grabbed his cell phone off the bedside table, not really sure what he wanted to do with it, but not really sure what else to do with himself either.

To his surprise, this actually revealed that he had a handful of missed calls. All from Hayner, Pence or Olette. Not good. They'd probably made some sort of plans today, and had probably been calling him about it all afternoon. He was really going to get it for not returning or even answering any of their calls come the bus ride with Olette tomorrow morning. He felt guilty as well, because chances were they had held off their plans, waiting for him to call. They didn't like to leave Roxas out of anything. Plus, they probably were itching to hear all the details from the night before.

"Oh Roxas, you're going to have to tell us everything."

He was still trying to figure out what to do about that problem. He hardly knew anything at all about Axel, after all, and what he did know he certainly couldn't tell his friends. What was he supposed to say?

He was hoping that today he would at least know a little more about Axel, but that wasn't really the case. Of all the legends and other stories he'd read the only thing they all seemed to have in common were that they were all entirely different. He'd managed to separate fact from fiction, but it still left him with a load of contradictory facts. There was no way to know which actually were true and which were nothing more than myth.

Except, of course, for the obvious option of asking Axel himself. But Roxas still wasn't sure just how good of an idea that would be. None of what he'd read today had suggested that vampires were ever friendly towards humans. The logical thing to do was move on, never talk to Axel and therefore not have to worry about anything vampire related ever again. But he didn't think he could do that.

The redhead had been absolutely gorgeous, and obviously interested in him, both of which were pluses. But the thing Roxas really couldn't get out of his head was the feeling he'd gotten from Axel when he'd held Roxas in his arms for a few moments; so content, and peaceful and utterly happy. It was nice to make someone feel that way, even if Roxas couldn't think of any explanation as to why Axel had reacted in the way he had. He liked being wanted the way Axel wanted him from just a few minutes of being together.

Axel had seemed sincere enough when he'd claimed to mean Roxas no harm, and he'd has his chance to hurt him if he had really wanted to, without taking it.

But this was the argument he'd been having with himself since the night before, of course, and it hadn't gotten him anywhere at all. And tonight, it seemed, instead of the overload of things to think about knocking him out like it had the night before, it was keeping him awake, so much so that he hadn't even thought about shutting his eyes once when his brother strolled through the door just past ten o'clock.

"Did you just get home?" Roxas asked incredulously.

"Yep." Sora replied with a yawn, stretching up onto his tiptoes and then kicking his shoes off to land wherever on the floor, "Mom told me you were sick today."

"Yeah, and?"

Sora was wearing a pleased grin. In fact Sora was not just pleased, he was feeling downright smug, and Roxas didn't even need his power to know it, because Sora's body language said it all. His brother had always worn his emotions right out on his sleeve, "And, no one in their right mind fakes sick on a weekend. Not unless they were doing something suspicious, at least."

Oh yeah, Sora was definitely proud of himself for this moment of insight. Roxas cursed his luck. His brother may be dense, but some things you couldn't even get by Sora, "Who says I'm faking?" He tried, not quite ready to give up the ghost.

"Oh please." Sora replied with an over-exaggerated roll of his eyes. And unfortunately his immature argument was pretty much infallible here. Roxas was caught in his lie.

"Alright fine, I lied. But what about you? What we're _you_ doing today that you had to stay out with Riku until ten o'clock on a school night?"

Sora was in the process of removing his shirt, still looking positively full of himself, but he immediately lost his composure at Roxas' question, "I, well…I uh, I had something important to do."

"Like what?"

"I can't tell you."

"You can't tell me? Just like that?"

Sora nodded vigorously. Roxas contemplated that piece of information for a moment, not really sure what to think of it. He couldn't think of anything bad enough Sora could have been doing that he would just outright refuse to tell Roxas about it like that. He couldn't think of many times Sora had ever not told him something.

"So," Sora continued suddenly, he was putting a pair of sleep pants on now, but his right foot was stuck in the leg, and he was jumping around a bit on one foot trying to get it through. He looked ridiculous, "What were you doing today? Hmm….smoking pot?"

So Sora was going to play a guessing game with him. That was fine with Roxas, after all he highly doubted that his twin would ever suspect that he'd spent the day researching psychics and vampires, "Obviously not. If I was going to do drugs behind my parents back don't you think I would do it somewhere other than in their own house?"

"Good point," Sora replied. He was now dressed for bed, and he jumped onto his own, bouncing a little before settling into a cross-legged position. He paused for a minute, trying to think up some other possibilities for how Roxas might have been spending his day. Suddenly he looked up at his brother with wide eyes and a positively devious smile, "You weren't watching _porn_, were you?"

"What?! No!"

"Alright, alright! You don't have to get angry, I was just asking!"

Roxas was still gaping at his twin. He could tell Sora was trying hard to think of something else to guess, and Roxas decided he didn't want to give him a chance to come up with anything worse, "So you got your paper done today?"

"Huh?"

"Friday you told me you had a big paper due tomorrow. You were freaking out. Did you get it done?"

"Oh! That, yeah. Well, Riku had the same teacher last year so he just sorta let me borrow his. We had to dumb it down a little bit, you know, Riku's way better in school than I am and he uses a lot of words and things that the teacher knows I would never know how to use in a paper but yeah, because of that I basically already had it written."

"…Riku let you plagiarize his paper?" Roxas found that incredibly difficult to believe. Riku took school, and everything else for that matter, very seriously. He wasn't the type to facilitate cheating.

"Yeah. Normally he never let's me even look at his stuff; it's so annoying! But today he didn't really want to waste time while I wrote one all from scratch, because we had other stuff to do, so he said he would make an exception this once."

"And, I can assume that the stuff that you had to do that warranted Riku helping you cheat is the same important thing that you can't tell me about?"

"Yup."

It was silent between them for a while, and Roxas suspected Sora was waiting for him to respond, but he didn't really know what else to say. Finally the brunette spoke up, "Soooo, I'm out of ideas. Just tell me what you were doing today? Please?"

Roxas thought it over for a moment, and then shook his head with a smirk. "Nope. If you can't tell me what you were doing, then I can't tell you either."

Sora pouted, but to Roxas surprise didn't protest, "Alright, I guess that's fair."

That wasn't at all the response Roxas had expected. In reality, he was more than willing to tell Sora what he'd been up to today, he knew his brother wouldn't judge him for a little bit of research (although he wouldn't tell him about Axel just yet) and wouldn't tell his parents. He just wanted to taunt Sora into revealing what he had done that day, because admittedly Roxas was extremely curious at this point. Normally, this type of psychology worked wonders on Sora.

But it looked like it wasn't going to get Roxas anywhere tonight because Sora just yawned again, although this time it was much more pronounced than before and it brought Roxas' attention to the dark circles under Sora's normally bright blue eyes, which were now looking rather dark themselves, and bleary. Just what time had Sora gotten up that morning? And _what_ had he been doing all day? "I'm pretty tired, Rox, I'm gunna go to sleep now. G'night."

"Night, Sora." Roxas replied as he watched Sora climb under the covers and roll onto his side facing away from Roxas' bed. It only took a minute or two before Sora's breathing was deep and even with sleep.

Roxas figured he should try to get some sleep then as well. But even after he got himself settled beneath the sheets he lay awake for hours, unable to calm his mind and draw it away from thoughts of his encounter with Axel. And when he finally did find sleep it was plagued by dreams of piercing green eyes, and wild red hair and flowing red blood.

TBC

Do fifteen-year-old boys get indignant about being accused of watching porn? xD;

Hope I did not bore you with this chapter. I'm not incredibly pleased with it, and I actually intended for this chapter to be longer than the first one, but then this section ended up being way longer than intended and the chapter itself was getting TOO long and in my opinion jumping around a little too much so I just cut it off here instead. As a result not much happens in this chapter and no Axel (very sorry!) but also I already have the beginning of chapter three written down and the rest played out in my head so hopefully speedy update for once. Also, sorry that this got a little scatterbrained in the middle and was sort of jumping all over the place time wise. Hopefully that won't happen much in the future!

As for Roxas' ability, now you all know! It is a real (assuming you believe in this stuff) psychic power, and is actually much easier to find information on than I made it seem, for dramatic affect in the story lol. Better to learn more about it through the events in the story than Roxas reading a big long explanation of everything, I figured. So yes there is more to come there! Buuuuuut if you are curious you can go look it up yourself now.

And in case anyone was wondering, LM.C is a jrock band I listen to, that I've always thought Roxas would like so I name-dropped them. It's entirely irrelevant.

But I am most definitely ranting, so I will stop now! Please review if you feel so inclined.


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: **Dance of Death

**Summary: **AU.Roxas had always thought the fictitious vampire stories in books, the movies and the like were just that: fictional. He never thought they could become reality, and he certainly never expected to find himself right in the middle of one.

Main pairing is akuroku, though there will be some minor xigdem in the future, and possibly sokai. Rated T.

**Disclaimer: **Kingdom Hearts and all the characters therein belong to SquareEnix and Disney, not yours truly.

Chapter 3

Roxas awoke to the sound of his alarm with a dissatisfied groan. He couldn't have gotten more than an hour or two of sleep the night before. After spending forever just trying to get to sleep, he was constantly woken up by nightmares he could never remember clearly. But regardless, he needed the hour that he set aside for himself to get ready for school in the morning, so he had no choice but to roll sleepily out of bed.

Since he was the last of his group of friends to be picked up on the bus route, they were all already sitting in their typical spot on the longer back row. Sora joined Riku in a seat closer to the front, immediately proceeding to engage in conversation with his friend and ignore his twin entirely; leaving Roxas with nothing to do but face the wrath of the friends he'd abandoned the day before.

Pence sat between Hayner and Olette, waving and smiling at Roxas just as he would on any other day- always preferring to remain neutral when little disagreements would break out in their group. Hayner was making a point of ignoring Roxas, deliberately not looking in his direction and continuing to speak as if he were not there. Olette, her hands on her hips and a chastising look in her eyes, looked rather like a scolding mother- not necessarily angry, but definitely disappointed.

Roxas considered his options of the seats on either side of the trio, beside either Hayner or Olette, both of which presented certain risks to his safety. He chose to sit beside Hayner, hoping the other blonde would continue his childish before of ignoring Roxas all the way to school.

"Where were you yesterday, man? We called like ten times!" Hayner nearly yelled, suddenly rounding on Roxas, focusing the full force of his angry gaze on him.

"We were worried, Roxas." Olette piped in, her tone patronizing, "We just wished you could have told us if you'd had other plans; we wouldn't have been offended."

Hayner grunted in a fashion that suggested he would have, in face, been offended. Pence gave Roxas an apologetic smile.

"No, it's not like that," Roxas assured, talking a bit faster than necessary in his effort to convince them. He didn't want his friends to think he was lying, even though that was exactly what he was about to do. "I was feeling sick yesterday, so I just hung around the house. I never really thought to check my phone or anything."

Olette's mood changed from upset to concerned in record time, "Oh, that's awful! You don't look quite yourself, now that you mention it. Are you sure you're up to going to school today?"

So apparently he not only felt exhausted, but looked it as well. Fantastic. At least it made his lie more convincing, "No, I'm fine, just a little tired is all. For all the time I spent in bed yesterday, I didn't get a lot of sleep."

At least that was true enough.

Olette still looked worried though, and Roxas almost regretted telling her he was sick- she may not be upset with him anymore, but now she would probably fuss over him all day.

Hayner was still angry, but Roxas could feel his resolve fading. His best friend's emotions tended to go from one end of the spectrum to the other very quickly. He seemed to be having trouble forcing himself to stay mad at this point.

"But, I'm sorry if I screwed up your plans yesterday, or anything." Roxas offered, the statement mostly meant for Hayner.

That seemed to do the trick. Hayner's anger melted away, a goofy grin spreading across his face, "Nah, don't worry. Wouldn'ta been any fun without you anyway."

"Yeah and besides," Pence finally joined in, no longer concerned with having to choose sides, "thanks to you not showing up Hayner actually got his homework done for once."

"Shut up." Hayner replied, punching Pence playfully in the arm.

The four of them laughed before falling silent. Roxas took advantage of the lull in conversation to pull a sheet of paper out of his backpack and hand it to Pence, "Hey guys, check this out."

All three of them read over the page, Hayner and Olette hanging over Pence's shoulders. It was the information Roxas had found the day before on empaths.

"Wow, this sounds just like you, Roxas!" Olette gasped.

"That's because it _is _me," He replied, "I'm positive."

"It's gotta be!" Hayner agreed excitedly, "Whoa, so this means you're a psychic. How cool is that?"

Roxas glared at him, but for once Hayner had at least had the decency to keep his voice to a reasonable volume despite being excited, and no one seemed to have overheard.

"How did you find this?" Pence asked.

"Axel told me about it, actually."

Roxas immediately regretted the words, but it was too late to take them back. He had just managed to walk right into the exact topic of conversation he'd been hoping to avoid. Olette's eyes lit up.

"That's right, I'd almost forgotten about Axel!"

Roxas groaned.

"Come on, you promised to tell us. I want some details!"

"There are no details, really. I met him, he came on to me, and he left. You saw him, so I don't need to describe him to you. There's nothing else to tell."

"Well, where's he from?"

"I don't know."

"Does he have a job?"

"I don't know."

"…How old is he?"

"I don't know!"

"Roxas," Olette whined, "These are the things you're supposed to find out! How could you not know _anything_? Did you even talk to the guy?"

"Well…it was a little loud in the club." Was the only feeble excuse Roxas was able to come up with.

"But we found you guys outside." Hayner added suspiciously.

"Yeah, exactly, you guys found us," Roxas continued, his confidence renewed at having found a more acceptable alibi, "and he left as soon as you did, remember? We didn't have time to talk about that stuff."

"Wait," Pence joined in, "I'm confused. So what you're saying is you didn't have time to find out a single thing about this guy, but there was time to tell him about your power, which is like your biggest secret?"

"Actually, he figured that out on his own. No, I don't know how he knew." Roxas replied, adding the latter because he sensed that all three were about to ask.

"That's weird." Pence said. And Roxas nodded his agreement. It was weird.

"Come on, Roxas, you must have found out _something_ about Axel." Olette pleaded.

Roxas was getting tired of lying, "He did tell me a few things, but…I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

They all looked hurt by this news, and Roxas could understand why. He and his friends never kept secrets from each other. Ever. And why couldn't he just tell them about Axel? There was an obvious reason for not telling his parents, and most other people for that matter; most people would think he was crazy, or naïve, or stupid for believing that such a thing as vampires could really exist. But would his friends who easily accepted the fact that he was psychic have trouble believing he'd been hanging around with a vampire the other night?

But the problem wasn't that his friends wouldn't believe him. The problem was that he wasn't willing to betray Axel. The redhead hadn't technically told him not to tell anyone, but Roxas didn't want to compromise his trust. Trust that he was currently weighing against the trust of his best friends.

Of course, his best friends couldn't kill him if they got angry with him. He assured himself that this was the reason he was so worried about betraying Axel's secret to anyone; he didn't want to end up on the wrong end of the vampire's fangs. It was purely fear for his own safety. Nothing to do with his feelings for the redhead at all. No way.

"I promised I wouldn't tell anyone."

"Yeah, well that doesn't change the fact that we promised not to keep secrets from each other a long time ago." Hayner replied indignantly.

"This is different; these aren't my secrets to tell."

"Roxas is right, we have to respect Axel's privacy," Olette replied with a sigh, it was clear that she really didn't want to give up on finding out about Roxas' new love interest, "But you will try to convince him to come around next time to talk to him won't you?"

"Huh?" Roxas responded unintelligently after a moments delay, he hadn't realized the question had been directed at him at first.

"Axel, you'll try to convince him it's ok to trust us, right? I mean, you're going to call him or something aren't you?"

Roxas' hadn't been entirely sure that he was going to try to get in touch with Axel again, but now that Olette's question had him stopping to think about it, there was another problem he hadn't even realized, "No…no, I'm not going to call him because he didn't give me his phone number."

"Well, did he give you an email or address or something?" Pence asked. Roxas shook his head. "Did _you _give him contact information?" Another feeble shake of his head.

Hayner laughed, "No offense, man, but I think you were rejected."

No, there was no way. Axel had approached him first_._ He'd come on to him, he'd expressed interested in _Roxas._ There was no way he could have rejected him. Roxas refused to believe this was the truth, unsure whether he was so adamant because it was illogical or because it upset him to think maybe the redhead wasn't really interested after all. Maybe Axel had forgotten, Roxas hadn't even thought about it until this very moment when Olette brought the phone up.

_I came to scope out the competition._

Axel's statement from the other night suddenly came to mind. Did that mean he worked at another club? Would he really leave Roxas with nothing but a hint for how to get a hold of him? It seemed foolish, but Roxas wanted to believe it was less likely than Axel just moving on and forgetting about him. "Actually, now that I think about it, he did give me something."

"Yeah, yeah," Hayner replied teasingly, "Listen man, you don't have to be embarrassed. You win some you lose some, right?"

Roxas barely resisted the urge to remind Hayner how many losses _he'd_ suffered at the club that night.

"Maybe it's a good thing," Pence continued, "I mean, that guy definitely wasn't a high schooler. It's kind of creepy that he was there in the first place, he could have been a sex offender or-"

The death glare that Roxas was shooting him shut Pence up immediately.

"Don't worry, Roxas. I'm sure you'll find him…somehow." Olette encouraged, sounding pretty unconvinced herself.

Roxas gave her an appreciative smile, though he knew it must have looked forced. The bus had come to a stop and the other students were gathering their belongings. Roxas sighed in relief, "So am I cleared to go to class now? Or are you not done interrogating me yet?"

The others laughed and agreed that they were in fact done. They all went their separate ways to their first period classes.

* * *

By Friday Roxas had not gotten anymore sleep, and people were getting increasingly concerned with his well-being. His friends were constantly pestering him, asking him if he was all right, if he just wanted to rest. He appreciated the concern, but it was tiresome, especially when he knew rest wouldn't help anyway. His parents were sending him to bed early every night (always before Sora got home, which was curious, but he had too much on his mind to give it much thought) but he was just too distracted to get sufficient amounts of sleep. He couldn't let it go on any longer. At the very least he needed to talk to Axel.

Which was how he now found himself on the public bus back to Radiant Garden this evening. The city seemed like the best place to look for the redhead, at least according to Hayner.

"Hey Hayner are there any other clubs in Twilight Town, that you know of?" He'd asked the question on the way home from school that afternoon.

"_Nope, not that I know about. Whole district of 'em in Radiant Garden, though. Any reason why?"_

"_Not really, I was just curious."_

Hayner smiled coyly, "Can't get enough of the club scene, huh? I told you you'd like it."

"_It's not…I just figured I'd check some out, just for something to do."_

"_Cool, we should all go! I don't think we can actually get in, but…what the heck let's do it!"_

"_N-no! It was sort of something I wanted to do myself."_

_Hayner's smirk became even more devious. "You're going to look for that Axel guy, aren't you?"_

"…_Yeah."_

"_Whatever, man. If you wanna waste your time, I'm not stopping you."_

Thankfully, Hayner really had respected Roxas' wish to go alone. The bus stopped at the location closest to where Hayner's directions told him to go (he only hoped the directions were correct, Hayner was known to be wrong when it came to this sort of thing). He checked his pocket to make sure he had his cell phone just in case he was completely lost before getting off the bus.

The area he was looking for was right around the corner, just as Hayner had predicted. Also, as his friend had told him it was lined with clubs and bars of every variety one could possibly imagine.

He walked down the street, taking in all the bright, glowing signs on the buildings and wondering where exactly he should start. There had to be over a dozen clubs on this street, and Roxas had no idea which Axel worked in, or even if he worked in any at all, as he was going on a hunch. And there was the chance that even if Axel did work in one of these places it was his night off and he wouldn't be there anyway…

In his desperation to seek an easy method of finding Axel, he had failed to think his plan through very well. This was like searching for a needle in a haystack, only without knowing whether or not it was actually in there.

He'd walked to the final block of the district, and realized he didn't know where to go besides to turn around. He did so with a sigh, considering giving up on his plan before ever actually starting it. Maybe he would go and grab dinner somewhere close by; at least that way his trip and bus fare wouldn't be a total waste.

But on his second trip down the street a sign he hadn't previously noticed caught his eye. The words _Dance of Death_, apparently the rather morbid name of this particular club, were lit up in eerie red letters, the type one might see on store advertisements around Halloween time. But what really grabbed Roxas' attention was the image on the neon sign: a set of teeth with pointed canines-_fangs-_ that were dripping blood.

He gaped at the sign for a moment, hardly believing what he was seeing. There was no way. It was too cheesy to be true, too convenient.

But that also made it too convenient not to at least try.

There was no bouncer outside the club, luckily for Roxas, so he just stepped right in. Looking around he took in the mostly black, gothic-esque décor of the club, the red color of the drinks in the patrons' hands, and even the occasional bat-shaped decoration. This place was definitely vampire themed.

And there was the feeling he'd gotten when he'd stepped through the door. The strange, unnatural sensation that was otherwise impossible to describe, just as he'd felt last weekend when he'd first made eye contact with Axel. Only this time it was magnified, and coming at him from seemingly everywhere.

The club was not only vampire themed; it was also crawling with real vampires.

Roxas took a deep breath, hoping to slow his rapidly increasing heart rate so as not to draw attention to himself from the non-human occupants of the building. At least this meant there was a good chance he would find Axel here. He would just do a quick walkthrough of the place, maybe ask a few people who didn't look too hungry if they knew Axel, and then be on his way.

"Hey kid, you got an ID?"

Roxas nearly jumped out of his skin when the voice suddenly spoke from behind him. He spun around rigidly to find out that there was in fact a bouncer, standing just inside the club's entranceway a few feet away from Roxas, shooting the teen an accusatory glance. Roxas cringed slightly, but tried his best to hide it; this was one of the vampires.

He offered the bald man a guilty smile; of course he didn't have an ID- what form of ID could he possibly have when he wasn't even old enough to get his permit yet? He laughed nervously.

The guard did not seem to find it funny. "Out." He deadpanned, reaching forward to grab Roxas' shoulder and lead him in the right direction.

Roxas backpedaled a step or two automatically, not wanting to be caught in a vampire's hold for any reason. "W-wait," He stuttered, and stopped to take a deep breath again in an effort to compose himself, "I know I'm not supposed to be here, but I'm looking for a guy named Axel, a redhead," _a vampire_, "I think he might work here."

He wasn't expecting to have any sort of effect on the bouncer other than to distract him from making physical contact, but he actually stopped and loosened up a little, "Oh. You must be the kid. Yeah, just like he described, now that you mention it."

"What?"

"Axel mentioned you might stop by at some point. Told me to give you special permission to come in if you did."

Roxas cast him a confused glance, "He did?" So Axel had intended for Roxas to use the veiled hint after all?

"Yeah," The man sounded less than approving of Axel's instructions, "He's out back on break, but should be about done. You can wait around for him. But if I catch you anywhere near the bar you're out of here, whether you get to see Axel or not."

The bouncer's sternness had returned, and Roxas didn't dare push his luck. He nodded hastily and hurried off to find somewhere to sit.

He settled at a table, from which he could clearly see the door at the back of the club, and he watched it intently for a few minutes before it opened and he caught a glimpse of the familiar red spikes. Apparently the guard from the front had been watching as well because he headed straight over to talk to Axel. The redhead looked excitedly around the club until his eyes landed on Roxas. He smirked.

Roxas could feel his heart start to race again as Axel headed his way, although this time it wasn't out of fear. Axel in person was even more stunning than the memories of him that had been the focus of Roxas' attention for the past week had been able to portray, and the redhead's pale, almost opaque, skin was practically glowing under the club's lighting. Roxas could feel that his face was already flushed deep red by the time the taller man had come to a stop in front of him. When he was sitting down, Axel positively towered over him.

"Excited to see me?" Axel asked smugly, and Roxas did not give him the satisfaction of an answer, although he knew he couldn't really hide it from someone who could hear that his heartbeat was currently rivaling that of a hummingbird. It worried him a little, remembering the reaction his quickened pulse had elicited from Axel when they'd first met, but the vampire was remaining perfectly calm.

"How did you know I would come here?"

"I didn't know, but I had a feeling you'd find this place, you seemed like a smart kid."

"So what you said about 'scoping out the competition' was meant to be a hint, then?"

"Not originally, no, but then your little friends showed up and I didn't really want to tell them where to find me. But like I said, I had a hunch you'd come anyway. Obviously I was right."

Roxas considered that for a moment, "..And what if you hadn't been right?"

"I was going to wait a while, and if I couldn't take it anymore I would have gone to you."

"How? I didn't give you any indication of where I lived or-"

Axel was smirking devilishly. Roxas' eyes widened.

"Oh my god you followed me home! You were stalking me!"

"No, I only followed you long enough to know where you live. I didn't stick around, or watch you through the window, or leave creepy messages on your phone, or anything like that. Therefore it wasn't stalking."

Roxas just stared at him, a disbelieving look in his eyes. Axel grinned; reaching down to take the blonde's hands (Roxas cringed, having forgotten just how cold the redhead was) in his own and pulled him out of the seat, "Walk with me." He began to walk towards the back, tugging Roxas along with him. Roxas followed without protest. He was aware that Axel was probably leading him somewhere to be alone again, which was hardly safe, but he just couldn't pretend he was afraid anymore. For whatever nonsensical reason, he trusted the vampire.

They had come to the bar against the back wall and Axel stopped, releasing Roxas' hand to reach for something behind the bar. His position bent over the counter provided Roxas' with a nice view of his rear, not that there was really much to look at. Roxas suspected that Axel couldn't weigh anymore than he did, if not considerably less, despite being at least a foot taller. But his form fitting pants were quite flattering regardless.

Axel took one of the drink hoses and filled a cup with red liquid before spinning back around over the bar. He held the cup out to Roxas. The blonde just eyed him suspiciously, not reaching out for the drink.

"Relax." Axel said, chuckling, "We use red food coloring. It's just coke."

Roxas continued to look unconvinced.

Axel rolled his eyes, "Really, have you ever seen carbonated blood before?" He asked, rattling the cup a little in front of Roxas' face.

Roxas resigned to look down at the drink, and sure enough there were air bubbles forming on its sides, and floating up to the surface. He took it and tentatively sipped, immediately recognizing the taste of cola.

"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Axel laughed, then opened the door beside the bar and stepped out into the alley behind the club. Roxas considered ignoring the redhead after being teased, but followed him out anyway, leaving the drink on the bar countertop.

The sun had set while Roxas was inside, and as a result it had gotten quite cold. Roxas shivered, rubbing his arms with his opposite hands.

"Sorry," Axel started, his shirt was sheer, and sleeveless, but he appeared perfectly comfortable, "about the cold, I mean. I'd offer my body heat, but…you know, I don't have any."

Roxas didn't find the reminder that Axel was actually dead humorous, but Axel obviously did. He grinned, giving Roxas a view of his over-sized canine teeth, which were actually even larger than Roxas remembered.

"Did your teeth grow bigger or something?"

Axel grinned wider, and then reached up to take his left canine tooth between his thumb and index finger. When he pulled it came right out and he held the tooth cap up for Roxas to see, the only slightly prominent fang that the blonde remembered left in its place.

"It's fake, of course," Axel laughed, "after all, I'm not _really_ a vampire."

Roxas gaped at him. Of course Axel was a real vampire, they'd already been over this, Roxas knew it already. The whole situation at the club was strange though: the fake teeth, the food coloring, and even Axel's outfit. His heavy eye make-up, tight leather pants, and black satin shirt all looked wonderful on him, Roxas suspected anything would, but it wasn't at all the way Axel had looked the other night. And it was incredibly cliché.

Realization suddenly hit him, "You're pretending to be a vampire for work. As if you aren't really."

Axel smirked.

"B-but there were tons of vampires in there, the whole place wa-"

"The entire staff," Axel explained, "we're all doing the same thing."

Axel seemed quite proud of his little charade, but Roxas was actually slightly horrified.

"So none of those customers in there no the truth? That you're not pretending, that you're all _really_ bloodsucking monsters."

Axel was taken aback, "Well, I wouldn't go that far…"

But Roxas was angry. It just didn't seem right to mislead all those people, to let them all unknowingly put themselves in danger, "Is that your grand plan? Leave all these people, unsuspecting, so when you find one that suits your tastes you can just drag them off totally unaware to make a meal out of them?!"

"Whoa!" Axel yelled in response, and between his loud volume and livid expression he was suddenly absolutely terrifying. His anger sent a shiver down Roxas' spine, "I don't know who you think you are saying something like that but you shouldn't assume when you have absolutely not idea what's going on!"

"I don't know what you could possibly expect me to assume from a group of vampires, but fine. Enlighten me. I want to know what your deal is; I want to know what's going on!"

Axel didn't respond right away, and in his silence he was taking deep, slow breaths despite not needing the oxygen, probably in an effort to calm himself down. It did the trick, because when he spoke his voice was smooth and collected again, "The club here is mostly to act as a cover up for my coven. Everyone who works here is a member; we all live downstairs of the club."

"I don't understand what-"

"Just let me finish. So, the reason we're all in this coven as opposed to another is that we all have something in common that led us to choose this one. Got it memorized?"

Roxas nodded, still not sure what Axel was getting at. "Good. Basically, to make a long story short, what we all have in common is that we choose not to hurt humans. Ever. Most of them never have."

Roxas did not fail to notice that Axel had used the pronoun 'them' and not 'us,' but at that moment it was completely overshadowed by the knowledge that he had just made a complete jerk out of himself. "I'm so sorry! You're right, I probably shouldn't have assumed, but I really just don't know what to think. It's all I've been able to think about all week, and I haven't even gotten anywhere."

"Well, it's understandable to assume the worst about us when you don't know- we are a special case among vampires. I wasn't really that angry."

Roxas gave him a pointed look, "Axel, you're talking to the one who can feel how angry you were."

"Alright, so I was a little mad," Roxas rolled his eyes, "But not at you, exactly. It's just…"

"Just what?"

Axel was nervous, almost timid even, "I was just afraid I might lose you to a bad reputation. That you might get angry or scared and take off without letting me explain."

"…You were afraid that you wouldn't see me again?"

"Yep."

Silence descended upon them, but it wasn't awkward or uncomfortable. Roxas was stunned by Axel's revelation, and how genuine the vampire was being. Axel was interested in him, attracted to him. And it wasn't at all in the hunter-prey sort of way that Roxas feared. Smiling, he scooted closer to Axel, ignore that the contact just made him that much colder. Axel eagerly accepted the embrace and again his feeling of comfort, of belonging, washed over Roxas. Despite the cold, he could definitely get used to this.

Finally, Axel laughed, "Were you really thinking about me all week?"

"Y-yeah." Roxas blushed.

"Good. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who couldn't get someone out of their mind."

More silence. Roxas wasn't sure how to respond to Axel's flattery, any of it. He'd never gotten this kind of attention before; it was almost overwhelming. "It'll never work you know." He said, returning to an older topic because he wasn't really sure what else to say.

"What?"

"All of you pretending to be vampires. Or to not be vampires. There's no way that could ever work."

"It works very well, actually. After all, most of the people coming through here don't have the ability to detect the undead."

"Oh right. Thank you by the way."

"You're welcome," Axel grinned, "What did I do?"

"You told me I was an empath. You helped me figure out who I was."

Axel gave him an incredulous look, "Wait, you didn't already know?"

"Well sorry, didn't realize it was common knowledge."

"No, I don't mean it like that. The only reason I know is because I know a guy who's like you. I just figured you'd know 'cause, well, it's you."

"My parents sort of discourage ever even thinking about it."

"So you don't even know how to control it or anything?"

Until that moment Roxas hadn't even known there was anything to be controlled, "N-no."

"My friend could probably help you with that, if you'd like. He could teach you."

The offer was a tempting one. Any opportunity to learn more about himself was appreciated, for one, as was the possibility of one day being able to go to school and not leave with a migraine. But he still wasn't completely comfortable with the idea of Axel's friends, "This friend of yours, who's like me, is he like you also?"

"You mean a vampire?" Axel replied casually, "Yeah, he is."

Roxas had a feeling Axel's nonchalance was a test, but he wasn't worried about passing. He trusted Axel's judgement. "That would be great."

"Great! So, while we're making plans, how about a date?"

"W-what?"

"I mean with me, of course, not my friend."

"A date?"

"Yes. Would you like to go on one with me?"

That was possibly the stupidest question Roxas had ever heard, "Yeah. I…definitely."

"Great." Axel replied with a smile. It wasn't like his typical smirking or grin, but a real, genuine smile. And even with the goofy fake teeth sticking out of his mouth Axel looked absolutely beautiful.

"So, um," Roxas began tentatively, "I don't want to assume again, but, in terms of when this date is going to be…you don't happen to be nocturnal?"

Axel laughed, "Don't worry, that whole idea of vampires spontaneously combusting in sunlight is a myth, if that's what you mean." Roxas flushed, embarrassed because that had been exactly what he'd meant, "But since I work nights I usually sleep during the day anyway. So evening would probably be best if that's ok?"

"That's perfect."

"Excellent. I'll pick you up around five," He smirked, "I already know where you live."

Roxas glared at him playfully. "Creep." He pulled out his cell phone and checked the time with a groan, "I'll miss the bus home if I don't go. If I have to take the later one my parents will kill me."

Axel frowned, "Alright. But first, I meant to do this last weekend."

He snatched Roxas' cell phone and began punching buttons. He handed it back saying, "I figure calling me is a little easier than having to hunt me down at work."

"I agree," Roxas replied with a chuckle, "Do you want my number?"

"Already called myself."

Roxas sighed, "I…guess I'm going then."

Axel gave Roxas one last squeeze before releasing him from their embrace, "I'll see you tomorrow, then."

Roxas had what could have been the best sleep of his life that night.

TBC

Oh. My. God. I am so sorry this took so long everyone. I had it completed, needing nothing more than to be beta'd about three weeks about, and then my flash drive spontaneously deleted it! The whole thing! I had to write seventy-five percent of it again from scratch, and it took me a while to get motivated to do that because I was so heartbroken xD. Hopefully I will not take so long in the future.

Also one quick note about Roxas' empathy that I probably should have mentioned last chapter, but I'm going to be taking some artistic liberties with the concept. Considering that Roxas can "sense" vampires, I think this is pretty obvious, but I just wanted to clarify just in case.


	4. Chapter 4

Sora collapsed onto the couch with a relieved sigh

**Title: **Dance of Death

**Summary: **AU.Roxas had always thought the fictitious vampire stories in books, the movies and the like were just that: fictional. He never thought they could become reality, and he certainly never expected to find himself right in the middle of one.

Main pairing is akuroku, though there will be some minor xigdem in the future, and possibly sokai. Rated T.

**Disclaimer: **Kingdom Hearts and all the characters therein belong to SquareEnix and Disney, not yours truly.

Chapter 4

Sora collapsed onto the couch with a relieved sigh. He ran his hands down his sweat-covered face, his breathe still heavy. He could have fallen asleep right there, except for the fact that he was still at Riku's house and he had to return home at some point that night. "Ugh, I'm exhausted. Can we take a break tomorrow?"

The silver-haired boy was leaning against the back of the couch, obviously much less drained from their workout. He frowned, "I don't know, we still have a long way to go. And you still need all the practice you can get."

"But Rikuuu, we've been working so hard all week and tomorrow's Saturday. I just want one day off. Please?"

Riku chuckled; Sora could be incredibly overdramatic at times like this, and it made his whining even more pathetic. But that just meant it was harder not to pity him, and he wasn't lying when he'd said he'd worked hard. "Fine. At the very least, you can sleep in tomorrow."

"Yes!" Sora exclaimed with a fist pump.

"So how are things with Roxas going? You said before you were worried that he would get suspicious of us."

Sora laughed, "Yeah, but that was before he met the guy of his dreams, and got way to preoccupied to notice anything was up. Seriously, he is so obsessed with this guy; everything is Axel this and Axel that- he can't even think about anything else!"

Riku blanched, "Roxas is dating a guy named Axel?"

"No, not dating," Sora corrected, "Roxas so wishes he was though. I think he was going to meet him in the city tonight, or something like that."

"This Axel, you don't happen to know if he's a redhead, do you?"

Sora cast Riku a surprised glance, "Yeah, Roxas did say that he had red hair. How did you know that? Do you know him or something?"

Riku didn't answer, and the shocked look on his face was making Sora uncomfortable; not much caught the older boy off guard. "Riku, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, just…Axel. Keep an eye on your brother, would you?"

As the exact meaning of Riku's words sank in, Sora's eyes widened. Axel couldn't be…but Riku's worried look, and his strange behavior, said it all.

Roxas was in deep trouble.

oOo

Roxas awoke Saturday morning feeling immeasurably better than he had all week. It was early, only a little past nine, but he still felt well rested, because he actually had been able to rest the night before. The first thing he noticed was that Sora was still sleeping soundly in his bed, which hadn't been the norm lately at all. But he had still already been in bed, this time actually asleep, long before his brother's return home the night before.

At breakfast his mother was pleased to see him looking so well. When she asked what his plans were for the day he lied and said he was going out with Hayner, Pence and Olette, knowing she would be gone for work when Axel arrived anyway and not particularly caring to explain why he was going out with just a friend she'd never heard anything about before. He took extra care getting ready; making sure his hair was absolutely perfect, and trying just about every single article of clothing is his wardrobe at least once. He even text messaged Hayner to let his friends know he wouldn't be available that day ahead of time, to which Hayner, obviously figuring that his search for Axel had gone well the night before, responded with a _go get 'im, tiger._ But once all of this was completed it was still just about noontime, and five hours away from Axel's actual arrival.

To pass the time he decided to get his homework for the weekend done, and he was about halfway through his math when Sora popped his head into the room. Amazingly his twin hadn't gone to Riku's house that day, but Sora had still been acting strange. He was practically following Roxas around the house, almost like he was afraid to let the blonde out of his sight, always with his worried gaze on his brother. It was driving Roxas crazy. And there Sora was again, still staring at Roxas with that same worried look.

"Do I have something on my face?" Roxas finally snapped, unable to put up with his brother's weird behavior any longer without some sort of explanation.

"No," Sora replied, "I just wanted to see what you were up to is all. Sorry that I'm _bothering_ you so much."

Roxas could tell by Sora's tone that the comment about bothering him was meant to be sarcastic, but considering that his brother's behavior was in fact bothering him the effect was sort of lost. And Sora's emotions weren't even teasing or curious; just like his gaze suggested he was genuinely worried about something. There was something Sora wasn't telling him.

"What exactly has you so interested that you've needed to know every single thing I've been up to all morning, anyway? And what about Riku- don't you have plans with him today or something? I can't remember the last time you didn't."

Sora winced; so maybe Roxas had been noticing his recent activities a little more than he'd thought, "W-well yeah, I've barely seen you lately, you know, spending so much time with Riku like you said. But, uhh…Riku's busy with…something else today and so I figure, um, why not make up for lost time now? Haha."

Well, that was a lie if Roxas had ever heard one. And not a very good one. "So you're making up for not having spent anytime with me this past week…by following me around the house and staring at me?"

"N-no!" I mean, I was going to ask if you if you wanted to do something but…every time I went to I realized I hadn't thought of anything yet!"

Roxas groaned, he was feeling embarrassed to even be related to Sora at the moment, let alone comprised of the exact same DNA. But the brunette obviously didn't want to tell him what was really going on, and Roxas simply didn't have the motivation to try and interrogate it out of him. He honestly didn't care what Sora was up to, not when his mind was too busy focusing on the fact that he was going to be seeing Axel in- he glanced at the clock- three more hours. "Sorry, but I can't hang out today anyway. I have plans at five."

"Oh. Why five? Were Hayner, Pence and Olette busy this afternoon or something?"

A frown, "No. Hayner, Pence and Olette are not the only people I ever have plans with, you know." Well, in truth they actually _were_, but for once that wasn't the case, "I'm going out with someone else."

"…Someo- n-not Axel?"

Sora was suddenly a lot more worried than he had been moments before, "Yes, Axel. Why, do you have a problem with me going out with him or something?"

"No, of course not! Just, don't you think, maybe, he's a little…too old for you? Or something?"

Right. Axel's age. That was one of those "important things" about him that Olette had wanted Roxas to find out, which he had disregarded again last night. But still, he didn't remember even mentioning to Sora that Axel was older than he was. "No, actually I don't think he's too old." Roxas replied, although being perfectly honest he didn't have any sort of idea.

Sora didn't seem pleased by this answer, nor did he seem ready to give up, "Well, maybe it's a little too early for you guys to be going on a date? I mean, you just met him, right?"

"I don't understand- why don't you like Axel?" Roxas asked, more than a little hurt by Sora's behavior. When he and Kairi had started dating Roxas had been completely accepting, after all. Of course, Sora and Kairi had been friends since they were little, so Roxas had already known her, but Sora still wasn't really being fair. He hadn't even seen a glimpse of Axel yet, let alone spent any time with him, and he was getting apprehensive over nothing.

_Not that there isn't something to be apprehensive about._ Roxas thought. He was a little nervous himself about his first date with a vampire, because as much as he had come to trust Axel he still hadn't spent a whole lot of time with him, and therefore didn't really know if the redhead's self control was really as good as he said it was (and, of course, there were all the typical fears associated with a first date; the _normal_ ones like wearing the right outfit or saying the right thing, as opposed to having the life sucked out of you, but that was another issue entirely). Still, there was no way Sora could possibly know Axel was a vampire, or even that vampires existed. _He _had no right to be freaking out.

"It's not that I don't like him," Sora began tentatively, "I just…I dunno, I have a bad feeling I guess."

Roxas frowned, "From what? If you haven't even met him how could you possibly have a bad feeling about him?"

"Well, um, actually, I know I haven't met Axel, but I think Riku had and _he _said-" Roxas was already pissed off by the beginning of Sora's explanation, and it must have shown on his face because Sora abruptly stopped talking.

"Oh, well if Riku doesn't think it's alright, then let me call Axel and cancel the date! What are you, his new lap dog or something? You spend all your time with him and now you're going to him for advice about my new friend?!"

"It's not like that, he just-"

"And you know what, how do you even know Riku knows what he's talking about? He might not even know Axel that well."

"But Roxas, _you_ don't really know Axel that well, either." Sora pointed out matter-of-factly.

"I know that, and I know he's not perfect," Roxas responded with a sigh, "But I'm still giving him a chance. I guess I just would appreciate it if you would give him a chance, too."

Sora opened his mouth to speak, but paused for a moment, until it formed into a smile. He nodded as he spoke, "Yeah, I'll just give him a chance. That's the perfect idea!"

And just like that Sora was gone, dashing off to some other part of the house and leaving Roxas staring at the empty doorway he had just occupied. Roxas just shook his head and returned to his homework.

oOo

When the doorbell rang that evening and Roxas stood up from the couch to answer it he was so shaky with nerves that he almost fell right over. He was glad (for once) that he was the one with empathy and not Axel; he would rather die than have the vampire know just how nervous he was.

And knowing that his death could be very easily arranged this evening wasn't helping his nerves much.

Clutching the doorknob, he clenched his hand to stop its shaking- ok, so maybe Axel wouldn't need psychic powers to know that he was nervous.

"Hey, Rox, you gunna stand in front of the door all night or you gunna let me in?"

And apparently he didn't need psychic powers to know that Roxas was standing there stalling, either.

He opened the door with an uncomfortable smile on his face, but it quickly melted to a genuine one as his eyes fell on Axel, looking as gorgeous as ever in just a pair of casual stonewashed jeans and a black button-up shirt, which had the sleeves rolled up and was only half-buttoned to reveal a red t-shirt underneath. The intention of the outfit certainly wasn't to look sleek and sexy and vampiric as had been the aim of the club's uniform, but Axel was proving true Roxas' suspicion that he could make anything look sexy. Axel even looked better in his day clothes- much more himself, the way Roxas had remembered from their first meeting.

Roxas himself had been afraid of looking a little underdressed in his own favorite black and white outfit, and seeing Axel look so good in such simple clothes wasn't helping at all. Looking good wasn't as easy for him.

"Hey," He finally said to break the silence between them, cursing himself for not thinking of something better to say, and for sounding so embarrassingly short-of-breath and lovesick when he said it.

"Hey," Axel agreed with a light chuckle, and Roxas flushed, knowing Axel had most definitely noticed his school girlish-ness. But what Axel said next was totally unexpected, "You look great."

How Axel could possibly think _he_ looked even alright, when the vampire probably saw himself in the mirror everyday (that whole thing about not having a reflection _had_ to be a myth, right?) was completely beyond Roxas. But he was being completely honest, Roxas could feel it, and he could see it in Axel's beautiful green eyes.

At that moment Roxas realized that Axel might kiss him- by the look on his face was most definitely going to kiss him- and he didn't really care that their first date hadn't technically even started yet, or that Axel could lose control and take his life right there on the front porch if they got too close. Their faces were getting closer, and his was getting hotter and Axel was smirking one of those victorious smirks of his.

"Hey!"

If looks could kill, Sora would be a goner, because as soon as he barged into the front landing and interrupted their moment, both Roxas and Axel fixed him with their deadliest glares.

Sora wasn't fazed, however, and he nearly pushed Roxas out of the way to come face to face with Axel, giving him his own hard stare, "Hi, I'm Sora." He said, but it lacked all of his usual warmth and friendliness, instead sounding tense and uninviting.

Axel didn't respond at first, and Roxas didn't really blame him for the confused look on his face; he'd known Sora for all of both of their lives, and he couldn't make any sense of his twin's behavior either. But Axel just offered his hand, never losing contact with Sora's eyes, his own fixing a calculating stare, "Axel."

What followed was less of a handshake than it was a contest to see who could break the other's hand first (which, considering Axel had somewhat superhuman strength, wasn't much of a competition; Roxas was just thankful the vampire couldn't do anything to reveal himself to Sora). The tension in the room could be cut with a knife, and Roxas could already feel the beginnings of a headache from the abundance of negative emotions.

"Cold hands." Sora finally broke the awkward silence. He seemed to be trying to make it a question, but his voice for some reason sounded more triumphant than it did curious.

"Oh, yeah," Axel replied, quickly pulling his hand away to rub awkwardly at the back of his head with it, "Sorry about that; I have bad circulation, so my extremities are usually pretty cold, you know?"

Roxas had to admit; Axel was a very good actor.

Sora nodded in apparent understanding, but Roxas could still feel something a little sinister about him, "Cold extremities, huh?" He laughed, "That must get pretty awkward."

But the joke was on Sora, because Axel just laughed right along with him, "I've never heard anyone complain."

Roxas didn't really appreciate that particular joke, but he couldn't deny Axel put on a great show. Not that Sora would have had any reason to suspect his new flame was a member of the undead in the first place, but Axel knew exactly how to keep him off track anyway.

"Think maybe we should take off?" Roxas asked, moving in to resume his place close to Axel, now in between the two others. He was eager to get away from this headache-inducing situation.

"Sounds great, where are we going?" Sora chimed in.

Roxas gaped at him, "Sora, you _cannot_ be serious."

"Nah, let him come," Axel replied with a laugh and a wave of his hand, "the more the merrier, right? Besides, this kids kinda funny, I like him."

Axel was smiling brightly, and if Roxas couldn't feel how irritated he really was, he never would have known the redhead was lying through his teeth.

"Awesome, so what are we doing?" Sora asked.

"I was thinking pizza." Axel replied offhandedly.

Roxas sighed.

"Pizza, really?" Sora asked, the first question so far that actually came with genuine curiosity; Roxas added it to the list of things that were strange about Sora's behavior today.

"Yeah, I mean if that's cool with everyone. I haven't had anything to eat today and I'm starving."

Roxas hoped that this was another one of Axel's stupendous lies, because he didn't particularly want to think of the gravity of the situation were the vampire really starving. "Pizza sounds wonderful." He said quickly, making his way hurriedly out the door. He just wanted to get out of the house, although it would have been much better were he leaving Sora behind as well.

"Guess he's ready to go." Axel chuckled, turning to catch up with Roxas.

Sora followed a bit more slowly behind them, massaging his right hand from the pain of Axel's grip.

oOo

"What kind of pizza can I get you?"

"Pepperoni." Sora and Roxas said in unison. Axel laughed at their twin antics, and Roxas glared at him playfully from across the table.

"And you?" The waiter asked impatiently, casting his bored gaze in Axel's direction.

"Can I get a pizza with everything on it. Seriously, every topping you have. Just…no pineapple."

The pizza kid gave Axel a strange look before flipping his checkbook to write it down, "one pizza with…everything."

"But pineapples." Axel corrected.

"Right, everything but pineapples. That'll be right out."

Roxas laughed, "An everything pizza? That is going to be disgusting."

"No, it's going to be _delicious._" Axel answered, casting a bit of a suggestive glance as he said the last word. And Roxas did not miss the connotation; the last time he'd heard Axel use that particular adjective it had been in reference to _him_ after all.

Axel leaned forward on the table, resting on his elbows. Roxas followed suit, and Axel reached out to take the blonde's hand in his own. Roxas didn't flinch at the vampire's cold skin anymore, instead feeling comfortable by Axel's smooth, cool hand sliding down his arm.

"You haven't even touched your soda yet." Sora pointed out casually, clearing his throat somewhat obnoxiously as he did so.

Axel groaned, sitting back in the booth to give Sora an annoyed look, "Ok, here's the thing, you know this was a date and therefore you agreed to being a third wheel on this date when you decided to tag along. Now I don't mind you being here, but if you continue to interrupt us every time we're about to have a cute moment I swear to god I am going to beat the crap out of you. Got it memorized?"

Axel's tone was dead serious, and Sora only nodded nervously in response.

"Good. And, for the record, I'm saving my drink until my pizza comes."

That outburst effectively shut Sora up until the pizza came, and just as Roxas had predicted Axel's pizza looked absolutely gross. Roxas stared at it for a moment in disgust, but Sora still had his attention fixed not on Axel's pizza but on his face- a look of malice replacing his typical goofy grin. Roxas couldn't imagine what Axel could have possibly done to cause his normally friendly brother to loathe him so much without even knowing him, he doubted there was anything, but he was just now realizing as Sora shot the red head some sort of evil-looking victorious smirk while Axel sat there not touching his pizza that they might have a problem on their hands. Axel had claimed to be starving before they left but did vampires even eat regular food? _Could_ they? Did Axel, now sitting there under Sora's scrutinizing gaze have to admit that he wasn't going to eat his food? Maybe that had been Axel's plan, to order a pizza he allegedly thought would be good, but turned out to be grossly inedible, so that he didn't have to eat.

But Axel just broke off a slice of his pizza and took a bite, "mmm…that's _good_."

Sora, Roxas noticed, looked completely shocked and quite frankly he was as well; he had no idea how Axel could eat that disgusting concoction he called a pizza. But Axel just continued to devour his pizza, and Roxas made a mental note to add not eating to the list of myths about vampires as he dug into his own food. Sora at least proved to have enough manners not to stare at someone while they were eating, and he abandoned his observation of Axel for dinner as well.

Axel, however, had begun staring- at something behind their booth- so Roxas turned around to see he was watching a news report on the small TV suspended on the pizza parlor's wall.

"-the victim, apparently a teenage female, is believed to be Chloe Smith, who was reported missing on the night of the killing, but continues to remain a Jane Doe at this time, as the body in question was mutilated beyond identification. The police in the area are conducting a thorough investigation, but have yet to name a suspect that may be responsible for this brutal murder. Anyone bearing any information regarding this case is urged to call their anonymous hotline-"

"Ugh," Axel suddenly spoke out, drawing Roxas' attention back to the table, "I wish they wouldn't play shit like that while we're trying to eat."

"Why," Sora asked coyly, "the thought of all of that blood get to you?"

"No, but the thought of that family sitting at home not knowing whether their daughter, sister, whatever is in pieces or still out there somewhere makes me a little sick to my stomach."

Roxas hoped that Sora felt really guilty for that conversational faux pas, although he himself suspected there was something else really bothering Axel about the report, but he wasn't about to put him on the spot about it. He decided to save the conversation for another time.

When they had all finished eating Axel stood up from the booth, "So, where to next?"

"How about the park? That's a pretty romantic date spot, right?" Sora suggested.

Roxas wondered if maybe Sora was trying to make up for the fact that he'd been a crappy tagalong on their date all evening. But if that was the case, that suggestion wasn't really getting him anywhere. "Are you serious? First of all, that it the corniest thing I have ever heard, and second of all, in case you didn't notice on the way here, it looks like rain."

"Hey, why not?" Axel suddenly agreed, completely contradicting Roxas.

"See, he thinks it's a good idea." Sora added smugly.

Axel cast Roxas an apologetic glance, and the blonde got the feeling that Axel was doing nothing more than trying to appease his hateful brother, which Roxas certainly couldn't blame him for. Axel had probably had an entirely different night planned out for them, but had his plans derailed by their unexpected guest. He could hardly be angry, not with Axel at least.

"I'm going to make a quick run to the bathroom before we take off," Axel continued, and then he leaned down to whisper in Roxas' ear quiet enough that Sora couldn't hear, "I'll meet you outside?"

Axel had a mischievous glint in his eyes and Roxas understood; he wanted to try and ditch Sora. It was cruel, definitely not something he would normally ever do to his brother, but tonight didn't seem to be a normal night for Sora, and regardless of what was causing his strange behavior, well, he deserved to be ditched.

But not before Roxas got the last word in. Roxas waited until Axel was into the bathroom and out of hearing range (human hearing range, at least; he had no idea how good Axel's hearing was) before rounding on his brother, his eyes looking their most malicious.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"Hey, you said yourself that I should try to get to know Ax-"

"I said you should give him a chance. Is that what you call this? It seems more to me like you're trying to torture him and ruin our first date!"

Sora didn't answer right away, and when he all he offered was an angry, "Roxas, you just don't understand, alright?"

"Care to explain, then?" Roxas' tone was icy, and Sora shivered a bit accordingly.

"I…no. I can't. But _please_ just trust me on this."

"Sorry, but you haven't really earned it," Roxas replied, angrily pushing himself out of the booth, "when Axel comes back you can tell him I'm waiting outside."

Roxas stormed out of the parlor, and the few other patrons who had been watching their argument turned quickly back to their meals before Sora could catch them staring. He sighed. He had really been counting on Roxas just taking the time to hear him out, but that was obviously not going to happen. And maybe he didn't deserve it at the moment either, Roxas had a right to be angry, but if he would just hear him out Sora knew he would understand what he was trying to do. It was for Roxas' own good.

Sora looked up to see Axel approaching the counter, and he scowled. The red head was most likely paying for their meal. He really had been the perfect date so far, doing all the right things, saying all the right things, and now he was even paying. It wasn't much of a surprise- he'd probably spent a lot of time developing his ability to appear perfect. But Sora knew the truth about just how imperfect he really was. Grumbling, he looked back down at the table. He tentatively clutched at the inner pocket of his jacket. He could hardly believe he was going to through with this. He was nervous, but he was a little excited as well. No matter what he had to do it, for Roxas' sake. And he believed that he was ready, and that Riku would agree if he were here as well.

That was the first time that his best friend had crossed Sora's mind that evening, and he figured that now was probably a good time to fill the silver haired boy in on what was going on. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Riku.

"_Hello?"_

"Hey, Riku! I just wanted to let you know, that problem that you mentioned with Axel last night is all set. Well, it will be soon, anyway, I've got it all taken care of."

"Wait, what? Sora, no! You ca-"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine, I'm not worried about it at all! But I can't talk anymore Riku, Axel and Roxas are waiting for me and I don't want to see suspicious or anything ok? Bye!"

He quickly hung up on Riku and looked up to see what was taking Axel so long to find that the red head was no longer at the counter, nor was he back at the table, or anywhere else in the restaurant for that matter.

"Shit!" Sora cried, abruptly jumping up from his seat and hitting his knee on the table, which cause him to curse again. Most of the other people in the parlor were staring at him again, but he just ignored them. Axel and Roxas were gone. Axel was trying to sneak off with his brother in tow. Sora couldn't believe he had fallen for it, and was angry at himself for letting Axel get time alone with Roxas. That was too risky. He ran from the restaurant, hoping they hadn't gotten too far.

oOo

Axel chuckled to himself as he exited the restaurant, happy to see their silly little trick had been enough to fool Sora. He approached Roxas, who was facing away from the building, wrapping his arms around the boy's middle from behind. He leaned his head forward and spoke softly into Roxas' ear, "You never told me you had a twin."

Roxas leaned his head back so that it was resting against Axel's chest, smiling up at the other, "It never came up."

"But you have to tell me these things; that is totally _hot_."

Roxas laughed at the comment, "Sorry to break it to you, but I don't think Sora will be helping to indulge your twin fantasies anytime soon; he's totally straight. And in case you didn't notice, he doesn't seem to like you."

"I don't care. You're prettier anyway."

What came next was possibly the most incredible thing that had ever happened to Roxas. Axel leaned forward and kissed him; it was chaste, and only on the cheek, but it was by far the most amazing kiss he had ever experienced. Axel's lips left the place they had touched feeling cool, not so cold that it was uncomfortable but enough that the sensation was noticed and noticed positively, and his whole face was tingling with pleasure. It was almost enough to make his head spin. Roxas couldn't even imagine what it would be like to kiss the red head for real. And after that display of kissing talent from Axel, his desire to find out had increased considerably.

Axel brought his chin to rest on Roxas' shoulder, and he could see him smirking out of the corner of his eye. They remained in that position, not saying anything, just holding each other.

And then it returned. That feeling of familiarity that Axel experienced every time he held Roxas, or did anything remotely intimate with him. Roxas hadn't realized how much he had missed it until that moment, how much he had missed feeling just how much Axel seemed to not just want him, but _need_ him. It was wonderful, and Roxas was thankful to whoever or whatever had cause him to have this strange ability that allowed him to experience it. He could have stayed like that in Axel's embrace under the cloudy sky all night.

"Oh good, I was worried you guys might have left without me."

Considering the way things had been going that evening, Roxas probably shouldn't have been surprised, but it didn't stop him from being irritated at Sora's sudden intrusion once again. With an angry huff he opened his eyes, only having just noticed that they'd even been closed. His gaze turned to Axel, who apparently had closed his eyes as well, but now the vampire's face was all scrunched up in anger, and he groaned.

"Kid, you have got to have the worst timing of anyone that has ever lived."

"Haha, Sorry about that." Sora replied, not sounding particularly sorry, "but Rox, you were the one that said it looks like it might rain. If we wanna go to the park, we better get there before it does."

Roxas didn't honestly want to go to the park, but then he didn't think it mattered all too much where they went. After all, he and Axel had just had a moment outside of a freaking pizza parlor. He would have stayed right where he was, or gone to the park or even to some disgusting back alley somewhere; anywhere, he didn't care, if he could have just been alone with Axel, without his brother. But that was clearly not an option, so he grudgingly followed Sora, Axel falling in step beside him.

True to Roxas' word, they had not been at the park more than five minutes when the sky opened up. The handful of other people that had been foolish enough to be out in the park along with them despite the impending weather had quickly run for their cars or homes, but the three of them were in no particular hurry to leave. Roxas had always sort of liked the rain anyway, Axel obviously didn't mind (it wasn't like he had to worry about getting cold or anything) and Sora had already made it clear throughout the evening's events that he had no intention of leaving the two of them alone.

When the rain started to pick up to the point that it was coming down in sheets, it was Axel who finally spoke, "Think maybe we should go somewhere where we won't potentially drown?"

Laughing at Axel's joke, Roxas quickly checked his phone, doing his best to shield it from the rain and failing miserably because it was just raining too hard. 7:15. It was too early for their night to end, as far as he was concerned. And, no thanks to Sora, he had definitely not gotten enough time with Axel. That left only one option. His house was a fairly good run from the park, but it was still a more viable option than Axel's place in another town.

"We could go to my house, watch a movie or something." Roxas could really go for a cup of cocoa, too, after getting so drenched. The chill was starting to get to him.

Roxas and Axel began to leave the park, jogging a bit in a futile attempt to beat the rain, but Sora stayed rooted to his spot. This was it. His only chance. Everything, even the weather, had gone along perfectly with his plan. He couldn't back out now. Taking a few quick strides to catch up with Axel almost completely, he reached into the pocket of his coat, calling out as he did so, "Hey, Axel, wait up a sec."

Axel and Roxas both stopped and turned to face Sora, Axel taking a step toward him as he did so. Sora's hand was still inside his jacket, concealing what it was he had taken a hold of, and Axel was casting him a suspicious look.

"No, Sora! Stop!"

A blur of silver was coming towards them, and through the rain Roxas could barely make out that it was Riku, running at them at top speed. But he was too late, and before any of them had time to react Sora had pulled the wooden stake from his jacket and plunged it into Axel's chest.

Axel let out a horrible howl of pain that made Roxas' skin crawl and fell motionless to the ground.

oOo

Wow, my updates are getting worse and worse. I apologize for this taking so long, but I've just had so much going on this summer; aren't you supposed to get less busy when school ends? Ughhh…

Anyway, the actual plot is starting to get underway now. Finally, haha. And I know I keep mentioning xigdem even thought neither of them has even been in the story so far, but they're coming, I promise. Probably within the next few chapters.

And now I leave you with an evil cliffhanger until next chapter ;3


	5. Chapter 5

**Title: **Dance of Death

**Summary: **AU.Roxas had always thought the fictitious vampire stories in books, the movies and the like were just that: fictional. He never thought they could become reality, and he certainly never expected to find himself right in the middle of one.

Main pairing is akuroku, though there will be some minor xigdem in the future, and possibly sokai. Rated T.

**Disclaimer: **Kingdom Hearts and all the characters therein belong to SquareEnix and Disney, not yours truly.

Chapter 5

Roxas was frozen where he stood. He couldn't move, he couldn't speak, he wasn't sure he could even breath. He just stood rooted to the spot, staring at Axel's rain-soaked, limp body lying unmoving on the ground, Sora's stake drilled into the center of his chest, right into his heart.

"I…I did it." Sora said slowly. He looked about as shocked as Roxas felt, but was regaining his composure and starting to look very pleased with himself instead, "I really did it!"

"Sora," Riku said darkly, his voice containing a strange mix of shock and apprehension, despite the fact that it was very difficult to make the silver-haired boy lose his cool; he certainly seemed to have lost it now. And he too was eying Axel's body nervously, "I don't think you realize what you just did."

"You tried to kill him!" Roxas yelled, finally finding his voice. He refused to say 'killed,' although Axel's stillness suggested the worst. He dropped to his knees next to the red head, puddles splashing up around him as he did so. He grabbed Axel's hand, which was ice cold, as it always had been. Axel was lying there cold, pale and not breathing, but none of that was out of the norm for him. And the blood seeping out of his wound was being quickly washed away by the pouring rain. The only sign that there was anything wrong was the stake still lodged in Axel's chest. If not for that, Axel could just as easily have been taking a nap. It was a little unnerving to Roxas.

"You don't understand, Roxas," Sora pleaded with him, "I tried to warn you earlier but you wouldn't listen to me. Axel was a vampire!"

Roxas tore his eyes away from Axel for a fleeting moment to cast Sora an exasperated look, "No kidding." He deadpanned.

"You knew?" Sora asked, looking shocked once again.

"Yes I knew, I can't not know," Roxas replied, and Sora stared at him, confused. Roxas understood, he'd yet to tell his twin about the most newly discovered aspect of his ability, but he was in no mood for that at the moment. Right now the only one who owed any sort of explanation was Sora, "But how did _you_ know?"

"Riku told me," Sora replied, and the older boy looked ready to protest, but he was very unexpectedly cut off.

"Ri-riku, you…_told_ him to do this?" Axel gasped out suddenly. Roxas yelped, jumping back a bit and landing on his rear a foot away from Axel, who had opened his eyes and was slowly attempting to get back up, although this was clearly proving difficult for him.

"Holy- You're alive?!" Riku choked out, eyes wide.

"We had a deal Riku." Axel growled out. He had managed to reach an upright position, but he still looked a bit shaky. He wasn't looking very well in general, Roxas noted. His skin wasn't necessarily paler than it had been before, but pastier, lacking its usual vibrancy and perfection. And his eyes were duller, somewhat taking away from the intensity of the glare he was currently directing at Riku. The overall effect was that Axel looked a lot more like the undead creature that he technically always had been. It was very unsettling.

"I can't believe this," Riku continued, apparently ignoring Axel entirely, still too caught up in the fact that he was miraculously revived somehow, "You're an ancient, aren't you? You have to be! My god- I didn't even know any still existed."

Axel retaliated by ignoring Riku's comments as well, "What, you're not allowed to kill me, so you send your little errand boy here to do it for you? Did you think that would be some kind of loophole or something? And how long has he been your apprentice, anyway? Because, quite frankly, he still sucks."

Sora huffed angrily, but Riku held up a hand to silence him before he could actually say anything, "No, this is just one big misunderstanding. I didn't send Sora to kill you, despite what he says I never even told him that you were a vampire."

"You implied it." Sora grumbled.

"I told you to keep an eye on Roxas, I'm not sure how you got 'Axel is a vampire, go finish him off' Out of that. I could have been indicating anything negative about Axel's character. And _this,_" he motioned toward Axel sitting on the ground, "is exactly why I didn't tell you! I didn't want you jumping the gun and doing something stupid that you weren't ready for. We haven't done nearly enough training yet for this Sora! You could have died."

"_I_ could have died." Axel added indignantly.

"hold on!" Roxas cried, and three pairs of eyes quickly averted their attention to him, "What is going on now? Someone needs to back up and give me an explanation here. What deal? How did Riku even know Axel was a vampire? And what the hell is an ancient?!"

Axel had his hand wrapped around the wooden stake which was still in his chest. He motioned with his head toward Riku, "Your friend there is a vampire hunter. Rrrnh!" He groaned in pain and his quickly yanked out the stake before continuing, "That would be how he knows about me. Because about a year 

and a half ago he showed up at the club, not long after we had opened up. It was pretty impressive that he found us so quickly, but he actually thought he was going to take us all out, too, or something like that." Axel finished off with a laugh.

"I _would_ have finished them all off," Riku added on, continuing the tale where Axel left off, "but that's where the deal comes in. They explained to me that they weren't looking to cause any trouble, or to hurt anyone. They convinced me that they really were civil vampires, so we made a compromise. As long as they left all the people around here, or anywhere for that matter, alone, I leave them alone." He turned to Sora, "and that is why you didn't understand exactly what you could have caused tonight by acting without instructions like that."

Upon Riku's explanation, Sora looked about as pale as Axel, and said red head just looked irritated, "Yeah well, you're lucky it was me tonight and not another member, because if someone actually had died, you would be in deep trouble. Which makes me wonder why you didn't tell him about us right away to, you know, prevent something like this."

"Sora and I have only been training together for about two weeks now. He's learning quickly but he's nowhere near ready to actually hunt yet," again Riku gave Sora a chastising look, and the brunette shifted his gaze sheepishly toward the ground, "I was waiting to tell him about the coven until he was a little less excitable towards the whole concept of vampires, because I had a feeling he might get overzealous and do something we would both regret-which I was obviously right about- but then, unfortunately, you managed to meet Roxas."

"I don't find anything unfortunate about me meeting Roxas."

If he didn't already have so much information to take in Roxas would have been overjoyed at Axel's confession, but as it was his head was reeling. He could hardly believe everything he was hearing. It had been hard enough to accept the fact that he was actually seeing a vampire, and now he finds out that his brother is a vampire hunter. He couldn't seem to catch a break lately.

"You still haven't explained what you said about ancients," Sora cut in, probably hoping to change the subject away from his terrible mistake. Roxas was glad that he had, because he wanted to know as well, to satisfy his own curiosity, and so he didn't feel so much the odd man out anymore. He was starting to think he was the only one who knew next to nothing about vampires.

Riku turned his attention toward Axel, but the red head had his gaze averted away, indicating he clearly was not going to offer an explanation of his own- apparently being an "ancient" was one secret Axel didn't want to be let out, Roxas noted. Obviously it was a big deal, as it had seemingly raised him from the dead, but how was that a bad thing? Why was Axel feeling so embarrassed? Riku wasn't so reserved, however, and once he had confirmed Axel wasn't going to explain it himself, he began.

"This is farther along in our lessons that we've gotten, Sora, but the vampires that you typically see in movies and fiction and whatnot, the vampires like Axel and his coven, are technically only half vampires. They were humans once, and as a result they still retain some of their human characteristics. 'purebred' 

vampires, officially just called true vampires, are different. They're born vampires, but more specifically, what they really are is a breed of demon known for drinking human blood. They've only come to be known as vampires since they started creating their human counterparts."

"But I don't understand what that has to do with Axel," Roxas cut in, "Like you said, he's part human."

"Well, you already know from stories that a human becomes a vampire from drinking vampire blood, right? All that other crap about the seventh son or whatever is just myth. The point is somewhere along the line in ancient history, a true vampire shared it's blood with a human, and the blood allowed them to take on some of the vampires qualities, effective on their death. Half vampires were born, and continued creating more like themselves from there.

"But with each generation of vampires, a little less of the power is transferred. So vampires farther removed from their demonic ancestors are weaker. An ancient is the name that's been given to first generation vampires, ones who were changed by true vampires. They're supposed to have died out centuries ago, so I know very little about them, but it's the only possible explanation for how Axel could have survived a shot directly to the heart like that. I've never seen anything like it."

In response Axel merely pointed to the spot on his chest where he'd been stabbed less than an hour before; the only evidence that remained was a faint scar, which already looked years old. "I can survive being burned alive, too." He offered indifferently.

Roxas shuddered a little, not caring to think about how Axel had found out that bit of information about himself. But he was still confused as to why Axel seemed so uncomfortable with them finding out he was an ancient. So what if he was stronger than other vampires? Wasn't that something to be proud of, not embarrassed of? "Why are you so upset about this?"

"You heard Riku," Axel replied, "Sure I'm stronger, but I'm one step away from being a demon. I'm even more of a monster than other vampires."

"So you didn't want me to find out about this."

"I was hoping you wouldn't, yeah."

"I don't care. I mean, the fact that you're a vampire had me nervous at first, but I'm more concerned with who you are than what you are. You could have horns and a devil tail, or bat wings or something else ridiculous and demonic like that; it wouldn't change the fact that you're _not_ a monster."

Riku snorted, apparently disagreeing with this statement, but Roxas ignored him. Axel had cheered up considerably, and that was all that mattered to him. He scooted close to the red head and Axel wrapped his arms around him. He embraced Axel back, cautiously at first, he was right up against his chest after all, and didn't want to irritate the injury at all, but Axel didn't even flinch, so Roxas held him closer, confident that it was healed as fully as it looked.

"Jeez, I didn't know any of that," Sora stated glumly, making an effort to ignore his brother's display of affection. He still didn't approve, even if there was no longer anything he could do about it. But he was genuinely disappointed as well; he'd believed that he'd been close to being as much of an expert hunter as Riku was.

"I told you Sora, you still have a lot to learn," Riku replied, Sora looked crestfallen, "But we just started a few weeks ago, honestly you're very advanced for how long you've been training."

"I suggest you work on his stealth a little more," Axel added with a laugh, "I honestly wasn't expecting that stake, but other than that you were pretty obvious tonight."

Roxas cast Axel a confused glance- what was he talking about? But when he thought about the night's events, it did seem very clear.

"_Cold hands." Sora finally broke the awkward silence_.

"_You haven't even touched your soda yet."_

"_Why," Sora asked coyly, "the thought of all of that blood get to you?"_

That explained Sora's strange behavior perfectly. He'd been trying to figure out if Axel was a vampire the entire night. "So bringing Sora along tonight and everything- that was all to get him to believe you weren't a vampire?"

"Yep. I knew he suspected me right away, so I tried to not act like a vampire as much as I could; he seemed like enough of a rookie that it would work. Apparently he's too stubborn for that, though. Even eating wasn't enough to get him off my case."

"You saw him _eat_?" Riku asked Sora incredulously.

"Y-yeah." Sora replied, not making eye contact.

"And you still followed through? Did you ever consider the possibility that you were wrong?"

This appeared to be the last straw for Riku, and the two began bickering about Sora's behavior that evening. Roxas tuned them out, far too much else on his mind to deal with their argument at the moment. He turned to Axel, "So you can't eat then?" He had a feeling that it was going to take forever to get his vampire fact versus fiction straight.

"Well, I can eat all I want," Axel answered, "But my stomach doesn't actually function anymore, so I can't digest." He chuckled uncomfortably, "when I went to the bathroom in the restaurant, I was actually going to, uh…vomit. So I don't ever eat, really. It's not worth it."

"Oh. Well, that's awful." Roxas replied. He couldn't imagine never being able to enjoy his favorite foods anymore.

"You get used to it. But, speaking of eating…I lost a lot of blood tonight. So I should probably go, you know?"

Roxas did know, knew Axel had to go drink blood, but he still wasn't ready to think about that too much. He'd come to accept Axel for what he was, but certain things were going to take time for him to come to terms with. At least he knew Axel wasn't hurting anyone.

"Alright." He sighed. Axel had stood up off the ground, and was now offering a hand to help pull Roxas up as well. "I should probably get home before mom thinks I've drowned or something anyway."

It was as Axel was giving him one last squeeze and a chaste kiss good bye that it first occurred to him that he was covered in mud, and his appearance really would be difficult to explain to his parents. He supposed he would just have to cross that bridge when he got home.

"I promise next date will be much better." Axel laughed as they separated for the last time that night.

"I'm sure it will be, because I promise to leave my brother at home."

Axel turned to leave and he had walked several yards when Roxas realized he had one last question, "Hey Axel?"

The red head stopped and turned around to face him once again, "Yes?"

"Well, Riku said you were an ancient, and I know that's just a term but, uh…"

"You want to know how old I am."

"Yeah." Roxas replied sheepishly.

Axel laughed, "Leanoldo of Hollow Bastion. Look me up." He replied before continuing on his way.

When Roxas and Sora arrived home their parents did make a bit of a fuss, but they managed to convince them that they'd been hanging at the usual spot with Hayner, Pence and Olette and got caught in the rain. This excuse got them out of any trouble, but they were sent straight up to their room to bed so as to prevent catching pneumonia.

In their room Roxas rolled over in bed facing away from Sora, doing his best to make the point that he was angry, and therefore going to ignore his brother at all cost. Sora had tried to get conversation out of him, even offered a few lame apologies, but after a few moments of nothing but silence in response he had given up and turned over as well. Roxas really wasn't in the mood for talking, anyway. After this night he had far too much to think about.

oOo

On Monday Roxas gave Hayner, Pence and Olette the abridged story behind his date; how Sora had tagged along uninvited, tortured Axel the entire night and then got them caught in the rain causing it to end rather abruptly. He also informed them that he had been giving Sora the silent treatment ever 

since, and he continued to do so for the entire week, only speaking to Sora when it was absolutely necessary, which was around their parents; Roxas didn't want them to find out he was fighting with his brother, lest they try to involve themselves and mediate somehow. It wasn't like he saw Sora all that often anyway- Sunday he had jumped right back into his regular routine of spending all of his time with Riku, which irked Roxas even more now that he knew just what the two of them were doing together.

He'd been ignoring Riku, too, just for good measure. He supposed that the older boy hadn't really done anything wrong; except maybe that he'd turned Sora into some sort of horrible racist against vampires.

His silent treatment worked pretty well, too, until Thursday afternoon arrived. In the block immediately after lunch on Thursdays he had his study hall, and the only two people in the class that he ever spoke to were Sora and Riku. He was dreading spending the whole class having to listen to the two of them (or at least Sora, he wasn't sure that Riku really cared all too much) offer him lame apologies and excuses. He was also looking forward to the period, however, because it was the one time that week he had unlimited access to the school's library. He had some research to do, after all.

Hollow Bastion was a historic town about three hours away from Twilight Town. Despite the fact that their parents had once forced him and Sora to take an extracurricular summer field trip to the city one year and he had spent the whole day going on tours and listening to lectures about the place, Roxas knew next to nothing about it. All that he really remembered was that there was a huge castle that sat right in the center of the town, which was apparently centuries old.

But although Roxas knew nothing about the place, the library contained dozens of books dedicated to the history of that one city alone.

Roxas was leafing through his third book, still with no success, when Sora came and plopped down in the seat next to him. "Hey, Rox."

Roxas just continued reading.

"Awe, come on, Roxas, I've said I'm sorry like a hundred times! What more do you want me to do? I made a mistake, ok? I'm sorry."

Roxas closed the book, with a sigh; there was nothing about a person named Leanoldo in that one, either.

Sora looked over his shoulder at the books that he had spread out across the table. "Are you doing a project on Hollow Bastion or something? What class is that for? My history teacher didn't assign anything like that."

Roxas quickly gathered up his book and stood up to return them and find his next batch, "Not for school." He replied dryly as he walked away from the table.

Once he'd located a few more books that sounded promising he headed back towards his seat, but towards the end of the aisle one last book caught his eye, _Royalty of Hollow Bastion._ He considered it for 

a moment; there was a possibility Axel would be in there- after all, he had assumed that Roxas would be able to look up information about him, right? Roxas grabbed the book off the shelf.

When Roxas returned to the table he found that Riku had joined Sora there while he was gone. He groaned a bit under his breath, but the two of them were lost in their own conversation, so he figured that it would at least get Sora off his back. He sat down and opened the royalty book to the index. He quickly skimmed through the L list until he spotted the name Leanoldo, "Yes! Here it is!"

He shout had caught Sora and Riku's attention, and they had abandoned their conversation to watch him as he flipped the book to page 138. The section on Leanoldo was at the bottom of the page, about a paragraph long.

_**Prince Leanoldo **__(1186-1205). Son of Renoldo VIII and Arielle. Born August 13, 1186 and died December 12, 1205. Little else is known about him, since he died at such a young age, due to a plague that was heavily affecting the area during the late twelfth and early thirteenth century. He was outlived by his father, king Renoldo VIII, and older brother, prince Renoldo IX._

Riku, who had been reading over Roxas' shoulder, rolled his eyes, "Wow, a prince who died when he was still a teenager without doing anything at all. How interesting."

Roxas deemed this conversation worth breaking his silence, "This is Axel," he explained excitedly, "He gave me this name and told me to look him up and this is what I found. He was a prince!"

"And not even crown prince," Riku pointed out matter-of-factly.

"Who cares," Roxas replied, there wasn't much Riku could possibly say to kill his mood right at that moment. He looked at the little blurb again, this time observing the dates, which had been his original purpose of looking Axel up, after all. He did a bit of mental math, determining that Axel had been nineteen years old when he'd died which had been- at that point he blanched, eyes growing wide, "Oh my god, Axel is over eight hundred years old!"

This statement actually got a reaction out of Riku, who looked almost as surprised as Roxas, "W-wow- that's as impressive as being an ancient. I didn't know there were any vampires that _old_ still around, either."

"I _told_ you he was too old for you." Sora cut in.

Roxas rolled his eyes, "Please, I knew he was a lot older going by how many years he's been alive, I just didn't think he was that much older. But still, according to this article he hasn't aged since he was nineteen."

"That's still illegal." Sora pointed out.

"And considering that he works at a night club," Riku pointed out, "he's probably pretending to be a few years older than that."

Roxas didn't reply right away, because he was at a loss to say. Both Sora and Riku had very sound arguments, even if he still didn't agree with them.

Then his cell phone vibrated in his pocket, and it turned out to be just the red head they were talking about text messaging him.

_Come to my place after school today?_

Roxas smiled brightly, but it turned to a smirk as he looked back up to face Sora and Riku, "You know what, I don't care how old Axel is because I really like him. And obviously he likes me, too, because despite of the absolute disaster that you turned our date into last week, he still wants to see me today."

Roxas decided to quickly leave before the others had a chance to say anything, knowing he had easily won their argument with that last statement. Class was nearing an end anyway, so he hurriedly gathered up his things and went to return his books to their shelves.

oOo

"Hey, Roxas, where you going? The bus is the other way."

R9oxas groaned. He had been hoping to avoid running into his friends on the way out of school this afternoon, not particularly wanting to tell them he was going to see Axel. He avoided the subject of the red head as much as possible with them still. The more serious it seemed like his relationship with Axel was the angrier they would be with him for not telling them about it. But he'd been caught in the act today, and now Hayner, Pence and Olette were running up from behind him.

"I'm not going on the bus today," Roxas replied, "But you guys should probably hurry up, you'll miss it if you don't."

"Well, where exactly are you going then?" Hayner asked, although his tone of voice suggested he already had a pretty good idea.

"To see Axel." He replied honestly, knowing there was no sense in trying to deceive them.

"Ha, so he still wants to see you even after the fiasco with Sora, huh?"

Olette elbowed Hayner in the side, "Roxas, when are we going to get to actually meet him? I know we saw him that first night but we didn't even get to introduce ourselves."

"Yeah, don't forget he has to pass our approval before you guys get too serious." Pence added.

The way they were all looking at him expectantly, he would have thought they were hoping he would invite them along with him. Which, when he thought about it, probably was exactly what they were thinking. He shook his head, "You guys will meet him soon, but not today." When he saw all of their faces fall he continued, "I mean, it's not that I don't want you to come, but Axel works at a club, remember? He's breaking the rules just letting me in, even before they open, it wouldn't be fair to ask him to bring us all in."

"Wait, you're going to where he works?" Pence asked.

"Well, he actually lives there, too."

"That's…unusual."

"You're right though," Olette quickly started, noticing Hayner was about to prod Roxas more, "It's not fair to expect Axel to do that for us. But tell him we have to meet soon, ok? Or else we might have to start getting suspicious that something's up."

"Yeah," Hayner continued, "Like he's really some kind of alien or something."

They all laughed, and Roxas did his best to force a laugh along with them. Even if they were only joking, that was a little too close for comfort.

"Well, we better go or we really will miss the bus. Catch you later, Roxas."

Roxas waved to them as they went, happy to see them go. After a close call like that, he wasn't sure he would have been able to keep a normal conversation going; he was a bit too freaked out. So he continued on his way, making a mental note to talk to Axel about a day out with his friends.

Unlike the hour long bus ride from Twilight Town to Axel's place, it was only about a fifteen minute walk from his school. When he arrived on the street that housed the city's club district, he noticed that it was a lot duller looking during the day without all the flashy light displays, and with no people around. Even Axel's vampire themed club, which had stuck out to him the other day, seemed to blend right in with the other bland storefronts without its dripping blood effect.

He crossed the street to the club and glanced through the window before walking in. Axel was sitting at one of the dark leather booths in the back, facing away from Roxas, talking with another man with some sort of blonde faux hawk hairstyle. This other occupant of the table looked up right at Roxas, their blue eyes locking for a second or two, before motioning with his head in Roxas direction and saying something to Axel. Axel turned around and saw Roxas, a grin spreading across his face as he motioned for the blonde to come in.

When Roxas reached the booth where Axel and the other blonde were sitting Axel scooted over for him to sit down and Roxas did so, Axel's arm immediately slinking around his waist and pulling him closer.

The man across from them cooed. They both turned their heads immediately to face him, Roxas wearing a look of confusion (seriously, what kind of guy made sounds like that? And in reaction to just a little cuddling), and Axel just glared.

"Demyx, I will kill you."

The blonde, apparently Demyx, just grinned a silly, cheeky grin, "Sorry, Axel, someone already beat you to it."

Roxas had of course known that this Demyx was a vampire the moment he had stepped in the room, but hearing them talk so casually about being dead still caught him a little off guard. He supposed they'd had much longer to adjust to the idea than he had.

In Axel's case, much, _much_ longer.

"_Any_way," Demyx continued suddenly, turning toward Roxas, "Since Axel failed to introduce me, I'm Demyx, and I run things around here alongside Axel. I already know you're Roxas."

The first thing that Roxas noticed about Demyx once he had his undivided attention was that his hair was not only a faux hawk, but a mullet as well. The next thing that he noticed, paying a bit more attention to his ability, was that he was a bit of a goofball. The vibe he was getting from the vampire reminded him of Hayner in a way, only more mellow. He overall just seemed like a pleasant guy.

But what he said surprised Roxas a little. He turned to Axel, "Run things?"

Axel obviously wasn't sure exactly how to react, but Demyx saved him the trouble by cutting him off and speaking again, "You mean he didn't tell you? Axel's one of the head honchos in our coven, he sits on the council! I've just been given charge of this one branch, along with him; I'm not nearly as big a deal."

After Demyx spoke, Roxas noticed that Axel seemed to feel like disappearing into the seat. But he was curious, Axel really hadn't told him any of this after all. "Wait, so what do you mean this branch?"

"Wow, he really hasn't told you much at all. This place is only some of the members of the coven. Ours is pretty big, because it's the only one of its kind. If there's a humane vampire anywhere in the world, they're almost guaranteed to be a member. We started out from Hollow Bastion, and that's where our main headquarters is. And Axel is part of the council there, which is like our governing body, which is only natural, since he's the co founder."

Now Axel was really intensely embarrassed, but mixed in with that was a feeling of absolutely hatred for Demyx. Roxas hoped he hadn't gotten his new friend in too much trouble. And he was a little irked that Axel hadn't told him any of this on his own, but he assumed the red head had his reason. Not to mention that the story was just way too cool. "Founder, huh? I guess you just have a natural knack for leadership, eh prince?"

Axel chuckled, "I see you really did look me up, then. At least you're not embarrassed to be with me now that you know I'm really just an old man."

"I think I'll get over it," Roxas replied with a grin, "Since you don't look like an old man."

The door at the front of the club opened, and Roxas felt the presence of another vampire enter the room. He turned around to see a man a bit older than Axel and Demyx approaching them. He wore his long black and grey hair in a ponytail, and had an eye patch covering one of his yellow eyes (or perhaps lack of eye, Roxas thought with a shudder, noting the rather large scar running down his face right below it).

"Hey, dudes, how's it hanging?"

"Father!" Demyx cried happily, practically jumping out of his seat to run and meet the older man halfway, grabbing him in a crushing hug. Then the man leaned forward and kissed him, although the display was anything but fatherly.

Roxas just stared at them, absolutely horrified. Thankfully, Axel seemed to realize exactly what was freaking him out. "Don't worry," he explained, "Xigbar's not really Demyx's father. It's the term we use for the one who changes you- father or mother."

"So that guy, Xigbar, turned Demyx into a vampire?"

"Yep. And that creates a special bond. It's not uncommon for a vampire and his 'child' to become something more eventually."

Roxas grimaced, "Then they probably should have picked less creepy terminology for them."

"A valid point, kiddo."

Xigbar and Demyx had apparently stopped their lip lock and were now standing next to the booth where Axel and Roxas sat. Roxas glared at the newest member of their group, "How 'bout you don't call me kiddo?"

Xigbar just laughed, "As if. I think it's a fitting name for you."

Axel rolled his eyes, "Don't worry, Rox, it could be worse."

Roxas, who had always hated any reminders about his young age or small size, disagreed. "How so?"

"He's calls Axel ladyhips." Demyx answered happily.

Definitely in agreement that this was a much worse nickname than kiddo, Roxas could only laugh at Axel's fate. The red head obviously did not find it funny, and was getting annoyed. "What are you here for anyway, Xigbar?"

"Ouch." Xigbar replied, clutching his hand over his heart as though Axel had wounded him, "Actually, it's funny you should ask, ladyhips. See, it just so happens I was sent here to remind _you_ that just cause you helped make the rules, doesn't mean you're allowed to break them."

Axel looked rather surprised at this news. He groaned, "Dammit, how could they already know?"

"Word travels fast, I guess."

"You mean Demyx has a big mouth." Axel grumbled, shooting a nasty look in the blonde's direction.

"Heyyyyy, I only told Xiggy!" Demyx cried indignantly.

"Demyx, dude, the rest of the council was practically right there when you told me."

Axel was very frustrated at this point, and a little worried as well. Roxas was confused.

"Am I already in trouble?"

"As if. Look, ladyhips, we don't care what you do, you know we don't. Obviously we all wish you would stay in line, but by this point, it's not like any of us are actually expecting it. They just wanted me to remind you that if word gets out beyond us you _will_ be in trouble, and to make sure you seriously consider what you're getting yourself in to. Do I actually think you'll listen? As if. But hey, I'm just the messenger, dude."

By the look on Axel's face, Xigbar was definitely right about him not taking the advice to heart. Axel wasn't acting like he cared at all about what the elder was saying, whatever that was exactly.

"Axel, what's he talking about?" Roxas asked, no longer able to stand being left in the dark. It was starting to appear as though he was the only one who didn't know what was going on around him. Not to mention that there seemed to be a lot Axel knew that the red head was neglecting to tell him.

Demyx opened his mouth to speak, undoubtedly about to enthusiastically answer Roxas' question as he had been the whole afternoon, but Xigbar stopped him, "This is something I think ladyhips should discuss with the kiddo himself. And anyway I got to get back, the others'll be expecting a report ASAP, right? And don't you dudes open soon?"

"Oh, shoot! Axel, we still haven't even gotten dressed yet!"

Demyx was suddenly in a panic, and he had left Xigbar's side to yank Axel out of his seat before Roxas' had even noticed he'd moved, knocking the smaller boy out of his spot right along with him.

"It was nice to meet you Roxas! And nice to finally know what you look like after all this time!"

Roxas cast Demyx a confused glance. "But, Axel and I have only known each other for not even two weeks."

Axel glared at him. He paled, "Uh, I mean, you know, Axel talks about you so much that it seems like it's been much longer than that, you know? Hahaha…Well, I gotta go get ready for work, and you better hurry up, too Axel."

As quick as he could Demyx dashed off and disappeared behind a door leading to the back of the club. Xigbar shook his head at the blonde's antics, on his way to leave through the front.

"Hey Xigbar, wait up a minute. I almost forgot, I have a favor to ask."

"Ask away, ladyhips." Xigbar replied, stopping his movements to face Axel once again.

"You might have already noticed, but Roxas is an empath, too. We were hoping you might help him learn to control his power."

Xigbar nodded, "No problemo, dude. I'll come back Saturday morning?"

Axel turned to Roxas, a questioning look in his eyes. Roxas nodded in agreement. "Great," Axel replied, "Thanks, man."

"Peace out."

Roxas watched as his new teacher left, a halfhearted smile on his face. He was thankful that Axel had kept his promise to help him with his ability, and he was still looking forward to learning, but he was just not in an excitable mood at the moment. It had first become clear the other night on their date that there was still a lot he didn't know about Axel. But after today, it was starting to seem like it was at least partly because the red head was hiding things from him. The knowledge did not come with a good feeling.

"I guess I'll get going, too." Roxas said, no longer in the mood to be with Axel that day.

Axel was apparently aware of Roxas' suddenly sour mood and so he did not protest, simply nodding and placing a chaste kiss on his forehead. Roxas had gotten as far as taking a hold of the handle of the front door before Axel's hand clutched his, stopping him from going.

"You should go get ready, the way Demyx was talking it didn't sound like you had a whole lot of time." Roxas said uninterestedly.

Axel frowned, apparently he hadn't realized just how upset Roxas was with him. "Demyx tends to overreact, I still have time. But-"

"But what?" Roxas, despite having all the time in the world to get home, was in a bit of a hurry to get away.

Axel pulled him close, and he did not let go despite Roxas' lack of response. "Look, I want you to know that this isn't at all the way I intended for you to find out all this stuff about me, both the other night and today. We just really haven't had time to talk alone yet, huh?"

Roxas wondered if maybe Axel wasn't the one that was psychic. It was amazing how easily the vampire could read him after knowing him for so short a time. He sighed, "I know, but, after this, I can't help but feel like you're hiding things."

"Well, I definitely have been hiding things. But not anymore, I promise. Saturday when you're done with Xigbar we can just talk, ok? All day if you want, I'll tell you anything you want to know. And, for that matter, I want to know more about _you_. Everything about you."

Roxas smiled. Axel was making it very difficult to stay angry. "Alright, Saturday then." He replied, finally returning Axel's embrace.

oOo

sorry for the constant explaining in this chapter, but it all needs to be done before the plot can really move forward. And now my own personal twist on vampires is pretty well laid down for the rest of the story.

Also it's very likely that Axel's backstory will get written up as its own separate bonus chapter of sorts, as well as some of the other key vampire characters, if there's any interest. And yes, his mom is Ariel from the Little Mermaid I just changed the spelling to make it sound more old fashioned haha.


	6. Chapter 6

**Title: **Dance of Death

**Summary: **AU.Roxas had always thought the fictitious vampire stories in books, the movies and the like were just that: fictional. He never thought they could become reality, and he certainly never expected to find himself right in the middle of one.

Main pairing is akuroku, though there will be some minor xigdem in the future, and possibly sokai. Rated T.

**Disclaimer: **Kingdom Hearts and all the characters therein belong to SquareEnix and Disney, not yours truly.

Chapter 6

"Now you're getting the hang of it, Kiddo."

Roxas groaned. He didn't really feel like he was getting the hang of anything, just like he was getting a giant headache. He and Xigbar had been working for the larger half of the morning on his new empathy classes, and from what Roxas could tell they hadn't gotten very far at all. At least Xigbar wasn't getting frustrated with him; he didn't seem like the type of person who got frustrated over anything really.

"It'll probably be a lot easier if you relax, little dude."

Roxas was about to claim that he was perfectly relaxed until he remembered Xigbar could feel his stress levels anyway. He sighed, taking in a deep breath in an effort to calm himself a bit. This was a lot more tiring than he'd expected, and painful; he gently massaged his temples where the dull throb was quickly increasing towards a full blown stabbing migraine.

"…Maybe just one more lesson for today."

Roxas nodded his head. "That sounds good."

Xigbar laughed, "But don't think I'm lettin' you off easy just yet. As if, this is gunna be the hardest part so far."

Roxas glared at the vampire. He couldn't be serious. And yet, despite Xigbar's typical joking nature, there was nothing about him that suggested he was just teasing Roxas this time. Who did he think he was anyway? Just because he'd been doing this for hundreds of years and had no issues with any of these exercises didn't mean it was so easy for Roxas.

"Good, you're angry. Hang on to that, Kiddo, you're gunna need it in a sec."

Roxas promptly forget his anger in exchange for confusion, "What?"

Xigbar rolled his eyes, "Don't go changin' moods on me so quickly, dude, it reminds me too much of Dem, which is freaky, and it just makes this harder. Now come on, think of big, mean uncle Xiggy, making you work so hard and hurt your little head."

His voice had taken on a mockingly childish tone, and even though Roxas knew that Xigbar was only trying to make him angry, it was working perfectly. Between Xigbar working him so hard and then teasing him about it, Roxas was practically seething.

"Perfect. Now I need you to take that anger and project it to me."

"…You mean like, with my mind?"

"Yes, I mean with your mind. Last time I checked, use of the mind was considered one of the more integral parts of the definition of psychic abilities. So concentrate on your anger, kiddo, the more concentrated the better; get a real good feel for it. Then, add me into the mix, try to send the emotion to me, imagine me feelin' the way you feel."

Roxas did as he was instructed, allowing his eyes to slip shut to increase his concentration further. He took in all the aspects of his emotions, the tiny little feelings that normally went unnoticed under the surface. Then he thought of Xigbar, and just remembering the unfair treatment he'd gotten from his new teacher that day was enough to increase his connection to his anger. And then the next step, imagining Xigbar feeling that same way, reaching out to him with his feelings, which was admittedly more difficult, since the vampire always seemed to be relaxed. Roxas continued with this method until he was too mentally exhausted to go on. Opening his eyes with a huff, he looked at Xigbar expectantly.

Xigbar just shook his head, "Nothing. Nice try, though."

Roxas, on the other hand, wanted to scream. The whole lesson had been nothing but nice tries, and almosts, and he didn't think he'd gotten a single thing completely right.

"No, seriously, dude," Xigbar began, sensing Roxas' irritation, "You think I was expecting you to get this all on your first go? As if. You did alright for a beginner; most would be doubled over with a headache after an attempt like that."

One exasperated look from Roxas was all that it took for Xigbar to get the message. "Right. Guess we better call it a day, then. Ladyhips is probably gettin' impatient anyway."

Roxas sighed in relief. He thanked Xigbar for his first lesson in empathy; he was glad to be learning to understand his ability better, but also endlessly glad that the challenging ordeal was over for now. They had been practicing in the alley behind the club where he and Axel had spoken just the weekend before, and so he turned to re-enter the club and find said redhead. As he gripped the handle on the door Xigbar stopped him.

"Hold on a sec, Kiddo."

Roxas turned back to the vampire and had to act quickly to catch the small item that had been suddenly and unexpectedly hurled in his direction. He stuck his hands up at random, mostly on impulse to protect his, face, and caught the little white tube haphazardly, fumbling for a few seconds before he got a firm grip. Xigbar chuckled at his antics and Roxas shot the elder man a hateful glare before shifting his focus to finding out exactly what the small projectile had been. It was a bottle of extra strength ibuprofen.

So apparently Xigbar had known exactly what to expect from their first lesson. A little warning would have been nice.

He almost thanked Xigbar for the pills, but considering that the man was the main cause of his pain (and knew that he would be) Roxas decided that he didn't really deserve it. He left without saying another word, hoping that Xigbar would get the point.

The club itself turned out to be completely empty, with all the lights turned off, and even in broad daylight the effect was quite creepy. It wasn't really surprising the place was abandoned though, the vampires had been working well into the early hours of the morning, after all, and since it was only just after eleven they were probably all still asleep. But Roxas was still confused. Axel had said they would spend time together right after his lesson, so where was the red head now?

Roxas wandered around the room for a few moments, and in the far back corner, discreetly tucked away from all the hype of the club, was a door labeled _employees only_. Axel had told him that the members of the coven all lived in the building, so Roxas could only guess this door lead to their quarters. He wasn't sure he should just go wandering in there without any permission, but it seemed like a better option than standing around up here in the dark all alone. He knew Axel wouldn't mind anyway. And if someone else minded, then he could just get Axel to tell them off.

With that logic in mind he opened the door, and headed down the stairs he found immediately behind it. At the bottom he found himself in what looked somewhat like a college dorm, just a long hallway with a long stretch of rooms on both sides. The lighting in the hall was relatively dim, and there was nothing but shadows coming out from the cracks underneath a majority of the doors, confirming that everyone was in fact sleeping. Roxas tread quietly down the hall, not wanting to do anything to wake someone up and invoke the wrath of a grumpy vampire. But none of the doors were labeled, so he had no idea how to go about finding Axel's room. At the end of the corridor he had the option of either going to the right where there were some more rooms or the left, where led to what seemed to be a common room of sorts. Roxas knew he would only get himself lost if he wandered around down here too much, so he opted to just wait in the common room; he was sure Axel would figure out he was here anyway, thanks to his incredible sense of smell.

There were three black leather couches lining the walls of the common room, as well as a table in the middle, and a large flat screen TV mounted on the far wall. Contrary to upstairs, Roxas noticed how much this place went against the typical vampire cliché- there'd been fluorescent lighting throughout the corridor, and now there was a giant television, and even a computer in the corner. Not to mention the space below the TV, which was occupied by two mini-refrigerators and a side table full of snacks like individual bags of cookies and graham crackers. That was strange- hadn't Axel told him that vampires didn't eat or drink?

A young girl, she had to be under ten by Roxas' estimation, was sitting at the table, drawing away in a sketch book, and she hadn't so much as looked up to acknowledge him since he walked into the room. She just continued to work away at the page with her colored pencil, some of her pale blonde hair falling over her shoulder and into her face as she hunched closely over the table. Roxas wondered why she was there- she couldn't possibly be a vampire at such a young age, right? But it would be awkward to ask, and he wasn't sure if the girl had even noticed that he was there.

He returned his attention to the fridges across the room. His head was still pounding, and he needed a drink to take the painkillers Xigbar had given him. Again acting with the knowledge that Axel wouldn't mind if he helped himself, and that Axel was in charge here, he decided to do just that. So he stepped across the room and opened the first fridge that he reached.

It was full of blood.

He paled. There had to be several gallons of blood contained in there, all of it packaged in the clear plastic pouches like were used for storage in hospitals. Which meant it was human blood. A fridge full of it. Roxas probably should not have been so freaked out by this, he already knew that everyone here drank blood after all, but to see it for himself, right out with all of the other "snacks" was quite a shock. He couldn't tear his eyes away.

"You'll probably find something more suitable in the other fridge."

The voice was small and feminine, and even though he did not turn to look Roxas knew it must have come from the little girl at the table. So she had noticed him. He nodded dumbly, still not quite composed enough to say anything. Sure enough, opening the other fridge revealed that it was full of juice boxes and small cans of soda. Roxas grabbed a juice pouch, cursing his poor luck as he went to sit on one of the couches and compose himself.

The painkillers seemed to be taking their time making him feel better, but Roxas' nerves had settled quickly enough after his little incident. He was looking down at the juice in his hands just sort of spacing out and waiting for Axel when he suddenly felt as if someone was watching him, and looked up to find that the girl at the table had stopped her coloring and was looking right at him.

"Roxas?" She asked softly.

Roxas was a little creeped out that the girl somehow knew his name, but he didn't see any reason to lie to her, "Yep."

She smiled and spoke again, this time with much more confidence, "I knew it. Father said you were very cute."

Roxas waited for her to elaborate, but she just went back to her coloring again. Now Roxas was much more freaked out by the situation. Who was her father? And, what was he for that matter? Father had two very distinct meanings around here after all.

Axel rounded the corner into the room at that moment, smiling broadly at Roxas as they made eye contact. He did not come immediately to sit beside the blonde, however, stopping first at the table where the girl was sitting. He crouched down to her level, looking over her shoulder at what she was drawing.

"Hey, kid, you having fun?"

He ruffled his hair as he spoke the question, and she giggled, nodding vigorously. Roxas watched him in mild shock as he came and took a seat on the couch. That explained a lot.

"So you must be 'father' then."

"Yep, that's me."

"In the regular sense of the word or the vampire sense?"

"Both." he replied, and Roxas figured his slight horror must have shown on his face, because Axel quickly amended, "But she's adopted, of course. I was a little young to have a seven year old kid."

Roxas sighed. This was quickly becoming one of the most stressful days he'd ever had. He shut his eyes, leaning against Axel's chest.

"Hey, what's the matter?" Axel asked, his voice laced with concern.

"I just have a killer headache is all." Axel placed a kiss on his forehead. It was chaste, but he didn't pull away after, and the feeling of his icy cool lips was enough to ease Roxas' pain considerably.

"There isn't something else bothering you, too?" Axel asked. He still sounded genuinely worried.

"N-no, nothing." Roxas lied. He didn't want Axel finding out he was still a little freaked out by the idea of vampires drinking blood- after all, Axel had admitted one of his worst fears was Roxas thinking that he was a monster.

"You don't sound too sure."

"I'm sure."

"…" Roxas could tell by Axel's slightly more rigid position, by his sudden switch from feeling concern to suspicious that he did not believe the lie. But he also didn't seem inclined to pursue it further.

"He opened the fridge on the left." The little blonde girl (Axel's _daughter_. Roxas still couldn't believe that.) suddenly chimed in.

"Oh." Now Axel was nervous, maybe even a little uncomfortable. Roxas felt guilty.

"Hey, you said we could talk today, right?" Roxas somewhat changed the subject. He wasn't angry or upset with Axel or anything like that, he just really wanted to talk, and he hoped the redhead realized that from the way he steered the conversation. "Could we go do that?"

"Oh, yeah," Axel replied a little too quickly, obviously he was still a bit nervous, "We can go to my room."

Axel stood up, and Roxas followed suit. They walked side-by-side, Axel taking a hold of Roxas' hand after a few steps- which he happily grasped back, and Axel led him through the corridor that he'd opted not to explore previously. They stopped in front of a lone door on the far wall of the hallway. Much to Roxas' disappointment, Axel released his hand to open the door.

Axel's room wasn't anything out of the ordinary, which surprised Roxas. It had a red and white color scheme. There was a bookshelf, a desk with a computer and some lounge chairs.

But his bed was huge.

"Does one guy really need a king sized bed?" Roxas asked with a chuckled.

"I'm sort of a bed snob," Axel admitted, flopping down onto it as he did so, "But it's _so_ comfortable. Come sit with me."

Axel was patting the spot next to him invitingly. Roxas' better judgment told him that getting right onto the bed with Axel after spending just a moment in the other's room for his first time, on only their second "date," was far from the appropriate choice to make. But the bed did look very comfy, and it was _just_ sitting, and Axel didn't seem to be harboring any sort of less-than-innocent intentions. So Roxas joined him.

He had to admit, Axel was right about the bed being comfortable. It was probably the most comfortable he'd ever been on. He flopped back so he was lying down, his legs still dangling over the edge.

Axel lay back to join him, turning onto his side so that he was facing Roxas. Out of the corner of eye, Roxas could see those green eyes boring into him, and it was more than a little unnerving, even if it was a loving gaze. They lay like that for a few moments, in silence.

"I thought you didn't drink human blood." Roxas blurted out, immediately regretting his own lack of tact. They had agreed to talk about this, though, and he wasn't in the mood to dance around the subject.

"I never said that." Axel replied casually.

"Yes, you did. You said-"

"I said we don't _hurt_ humans."

"Axel, there was a lot of blood in that fridge. I don't see how you could possibly get that much without hurting someone."

"It's from hospitals, mostly; blood that they drew from sick patients to run tests, or that organizations like red cross collected and for whatever couldn't use. Normally they'd have to dispose of it, but we have some connections that just get it for us. It's technically contaminated, but we don't have to worry about getting sick, for obvious reasons."

"…Oh." Roxas wasn't sure exactly what else to say. Once again, he had jumped too quickly to a negative conclusion about Axel. But with all the myths and legends and pop culture surrounding vampires, he was discovering that it was difficult not to jump to most of said conclusions. He was getting sick of himself for constantly saying stupid things like that to Axel that required apologizing, though, and worried that eventually the words "I'm sorry" coming from him were going to lose their meaning.

Axel saved him the trouble of apologizing this time, however, as he continued on without giving Roxas the opportunity. "Of course, that's not the only way for us to get human blood without actually hurting people."

That made Roxas a little apprehensive, but at the same time he was happy to see that Axel was being outright honest with him today, seemingly for the first time since their relationship started, just like he had promised, "And the other method is?"

"The obvious one- just drinking it."

Roxas turned onto his side to directly face Axel, giving him an incredulous look, "Sorry, but I don't quite get how that's not considering hurting people."

"Alright, well yeah, it stings a little, sort of like a pinprick, but that's only for a second or two. It's not too bad. Doesn't even count, really."

The blonde still wasn't quite understanding Axel's wild logic regarding the situation, "But what about the whole _dying_ thing? Even if it doesn't cause anyone pain, I'm pretty sure that still counts…"

"Well, duh, but that's not an issue if we don't kill them." Roxas was still casting him a blank stare, so Axel continued, "It's not as if a vampire biting you causes instant death or anything. And yes, losing too much blood will kill you, but as long as you don't lose too much, then you're fine. A little dizzy at most. It's no different than donating blood, really. We just need to have the self control to know when to stop. In reality, most people find that the feeling is more good than it is bad."

Actually thinking about it, Axel's explanation made perfect sense to Roxas, although he never would have thought about the concept so logically on his own. Logic just wasn't something one generally applied when considering the existence of "mythical" beings. "That explains all the snacks." Was all he offered as a response. He remembered a similar set up when he had gone with his parents to donate blood.

"Yeah, the sugar boost helps with the lightheadedness and whatnot."

"But, where do you find people willing to do that, anyway?"

"They usually find us," Axel explained, "One way or another they figure out that we're the real deal, not just actors. And like I said, people usually like the feeling, so it's not uncommon to have a repeat customer after that."

Roxas eyes widened, "Customer? You mean people _pay_ you to suck their blood?"

Axel smirked, "We do damn good business, as a matter of fact." Roxas still looked a little blown away by this discovery, but, not having anything else to say on the matter, Axel decided to move on. "So, what else did you want to talk about?"

There was so much Roxas wanted to talk about he wasn't even sure where to start, so he decided to go with what was most fresh on his mind, "That little girl, your daughter, what's her story? Maybe I'm just basing this on another myth, but she seems awfully young to be a vampire."

"Her name is Namine. I used to travel with her mother, and I helped care for her a lot, even though I'm not really her father. That was during a pretty tumultuous time period though, and her mother was killed," sensing that Roxas was going to asked he added, "She is completely dead, not a vampire. But she asked me to look after Namine for her, and I obviously couldn't say no, not that I would have- even back then I already considered her like my own kid anyway."

Well that explanation was shocking to say the least, particularly the last part. Despite the typical attitude that Axel displayed he really was very mature deep down, which shouldn't have been so surprising given his eight hundred years of being alive, or at least something akin to alive. And, it seemed, Roxas was going to have to worry about discovering that the red head had commitment issues down the road, "So was she already a vampire by then?"

"No," Axel replied, and Roxas couldn't help but notice the slight sadness that came over him, "I was never intending to change her at all. There are issues with changing children before they're fully developed; despite have the knowledge of a six hundred-fifty year old- Nami's pretty old herself- she still only has the mental processes of a seven year old, and she always will, because she's stopped growing forever. But when it came down to it, I couldn't let her die. At the time there was no problem with that; there are rules against it now though."

Rules. That reminded Roxas of their conversation with Xigbar two days prior, "That leads right into my next question, actually."

"You want to know what Xigbar was trying to warn me about the other day, right?"

Roxas nodded, "It definitely sounded like it had something to do with me, after all."

"Honestly, it had everything to do with you. See, it used to be that vampires didn't really have any rules, since a lot of them refuse to assimilate themselves back into human society. But eventually, we realized that that wasn't working out, so a few hundred years ago the grand council was formed, which oversees everyone. It consists of the leaders of all of the main covens throughout the world, of which there are twelve."

"And let me guess, you sit on that council, as well?" Roxas asked cheekily. Axel merely grinned in response.

"The point being that we established a set of rules all vampires are required to follow regardless of which coven they are, or are not, a member of. And among those rules are, like I explained before, no turning children into vampires, as well as…" Axel hesitated for a moment, and Roxas noted that he had been getting increasingly nervous as his explanation went on, up until this point, "forbidding any sort of romantic relationships with humans."

"Oh. Well, yeah, I guess that does have a lot to do with me." Roxas replied, a little surprised that he hadn't been expecting something along these lines, but he honestly hadn't. "But why didn't you just say something before. Or, you know, not approach me in the first place."

"Oh please, like I could have possibly stayed away from you." Was Axel's reply, and Roxas found himself blushing under the red head's gaze once again. "Truthfully, that law tends to be regarded as pointless, because if a vampire really wants to be with a human then they just change the person anyway. That's where our issue really lies. You're still not an adult, so that isn't an option either. So no matter what I do, I'm breaking the law by being with you."

Roxas was a little too focused on the thought of being changed into a vampire to really worry about Axel's predicament. Axel hadn't turned him into a vampire yet because there was a law preventing it. What would he have done if the law hadn't existed? Roxas suddenly had a very disturbing image of the night he met Axel going a bit differently than it had.

"If you were old enough, the council probably would have sent Xigbar to you instead of me, and had him change you. They know I wouldn't do it, not this soon at least."

And just like that, the image was completely wiped from Roxas' mind, "What?"

"The rule exists for a reason, I know that, I helped write it after all, but unfortunately for them I like you enough that I just don't really give a shit. Even if it was allowed, I wouldn't change you, not because I don't like the idea of potentially spending eternity with you, but because it's a little soon for you to be making that big of a decision. Someday, sure, but not now, and not just for the sake of obeying the rules."

Roxas just nodded in agreement, not trusting himself to verbalize it, because he wasn't really sure how he felt about the idea of becoming a vampire ever. At least it didn't sound like that was a conversation they would be having for quite a while.

"But this isn't going to get you in trouble, is it?"

"Well, like Xigbar said, the coven expects this type of disregard from me, so no worries there. We just have to make sure that the grand council doesn't find out, which is as simple as making sure Demyx stays away from them all." Axel explained with a laugh.

"And if they do find out?"

Axel sighed. Roxas' prodding was starting to irk him, but the blonde could distinctly sense that the red head was nervous underneath that irritation, "It doesn't matter, because it isn't going to happen," he finally replied with a tone of finality. He suddenly moved closer to Roxas on the bed, closing the distance between them and holding the blonde firmly against himself. "And you don't have to worry, because no matter what happens I'm not going to let _anyone_ hurt you."

Axel's reassurance had succeeded in freaking Roxas out a lot more than it had comforted him, as he wasn't sure when the possibility of _him_ being the one in danger had even come into play. But a nice silence had fallen between them, and he was quite comfortable laying there wedged against Axel's cool chest, and so he had no desire to say anything that would kill the mood.

Roxas looked up to meet Axel's eyes, to find that the red head was staring at him hungrily, which was simultaneously very unnerving and very, very nice. Axel leaned down and kissed him, and although it was as chaste as their previous displays Axel's lips lingered on his and Roxas did not miss the implication. He'd barely parted his lips before Axel responded, and Roxas felt a hand running through the hair on the back of his head as the red head's tongue explored his mouth. Roxas put his hands between them, pressing them flat against Axel's chest in an attempt to get a little more leverage on the freakishly tall red head, but Axel wasn't going to allow it, and Roxas felt the grip on the back of his head tighten, pulling him deeper into the kiss as Axel greedily retained his dominance.

Axel didn't move right away when they stopped, until a moment later when he very suddenly rolled over, taking Roxas with him so that the blonde was lying flat on his back with Axel looming over him. He was smirking deviously.

"I'm on to you, trying to distract me like that, but we had a deal; I told you all about me, so now I get to hear about you."

"Axel," Roxas chuckled, "I don't know how that could be considered me distracting you when you were the one that initiated it."

"But you never told me how amazing it would be. That far exceeded anything I could have ever possibly imagined." He placed a quick, playful kiss on Roxas' lips, "I think I might be addicted to you already, Roxas."

Roxas blushed, again, but tried to downplay it by rolling his eyes, "Suck up." He replied, to which Axel just laughed, but flopped over so that they were lying next to each other once again, this time both on their backs.

They lay in silence again. They were just close enough that their arms were barely touching, and Axel was gently stroking Roxas' with his fingers. Eventually, the red head was the one to break the silence, "Well?"

"Well what?"

"You still haven't told me anything yet."

"There's not really anything to tell. Compared to all of your stories my life is pretty boring."

"I don't care; I've been living with the supernatural for the past eight hundred years. 'Boring' might be nice for a change."

Roxas sighed. He wasn't sure what to say, unlike Axel he really didn't have any special stories about his life whatsoever; there really wasn't much to say at all. "Well, I live with my brother and my parents, both of whom are really uptight and conservative, so they've always been a little freaked out by me. I mean, just compare Sora and I; he's really outgoing and popular and good at sports and friends with all the people who are outgoing, popular and good at sports. Meanwhile I'm shy, and generally considered weird, can read people's minds and I'm gay. My parents have no idea about the last two of course, but still. I'm not saying they've ever picked favorites or anything, but if they had to, I don't think it would be a hard decision."

Axel frowned, "So, it's safe to say I won't be meeting the parents anytime soon then, huh?"

Roxas laughed, "Are you kidding? Not only are you a guy, but you're way too old for me, you have tattoos and to top it all off you're a member of the undead. Maybe I should bring you home sometime just to see the look on their faces."

Axel smiled. It had seemed for a moment like their conversation had tread onto uncomfortable ground for Roxas, but thankfully the blonde was still able to smile about it. "Well, you couldn't exactly tell them about the whole undead thing, but from the sound of them the other stuff would be enough."

"Oh, speaking of not telling people things, I have these three best friends, Hayner, Pence and Olette, and we sort of always tell each other everything," At the sight of Axel's horrified look Roxas added, "But I haven't told them yet! I haven't told them anything about you at all, really, because I don't know what to tell them. And it's sort of getting to the point that the only way to avoid conversations about you coming up is to avoid them all together. So basically, they really want to meet you. Do you mind? Then you can tell them mostly everything yourself and I'll only have to fill in little details that I couldn't possibly screw up."

"Sure, I don't mind meeting your friends. But, aren't they less likely to ask me about personal information? We don't really know each other."

"Oh no, they'll drill you. They're a little upset, after all; we've been dating for a few weeks now, despite the fact that they haven't actually approved of you yet."

"Oh, so they're those kinds of friends, huh?"

"Oh yeah, they definitely are."

"Alright well, will they be around tonight? I can meet them when I bring you home."

"Yeah, I have a pretty good idea where they'd be." He grinned; honestly, there was only one place that they would ever be. The usual spot.

Axel nodded, "Sounds good. But, before we go, I have one more question for you."

"Ask away."

"You know that incredible kiss earlier?"

"…Yes?" Roxas wasn't exactly sure where this was going, but the look on Axel's face gave him a pretty good idea.

"Was that a matter of great talent on your part, or simply a fluke?"

Axel was rolling over, until he was practically on top of Roxas once again. Roxas just laughed, "I suppose there's only one way to find out, right?"

Axel gave him a lecherous grin, and was on top of him once again.

oOo

As predicted, Hayner, Pence and Olette were all present when Roxas returned to the usual spot later that day; the latter two working diligently on their homework while the former played a handheld video game, his face scrunched in concentration and backpack lying zippered shut and forgotten on the ground. They all looked up when Roxas poked his head through the makeshift curtain, although Hayner only made a split second of eye contact before returning to his game.

"Hi, Roxas." Olette said from her position lying on her stomach on the floor. She dropped her pencil down onto her notebook as she spoke, "How was your day?"

"It was a lot of fun," Roxas replied, and Pence, who was sitting cross-legged beside Olette, looked up from his laptop to give Roxas a mischievous grin, which surprise Roxas a bit, being the type of thing he expected more from Hayner. Perhaps Pence was spending too much time with their crude friend without Roxas there to mitigate the damage. "And, I brought someone back with me."

That caught Hayner's attention enough that he shut down his video game, the others sitting upright at full attention as well. "Really?" Olette asked, "Is he here?!"

Roxas laughed and rolled his eyes, but stepped all the way into the small room, Axel following behind him, glancing interestedly around at his new surroundings. After a moment he realized that while he was staring intently at the contents of the room, its three occupants were staring at him. "Umm…hey?"

"Guys, this is Axel. Axel, this is Hayner, Pence and Olette."

"Nice to meet you, Axel." Olette said with a smile.

"Yeah, it's a pleasure." Pence added.

Hayner just nodded.

"Same." Axel replied, still not sure what to think of Roxas' friends. They didn't seem nearly as intense as he'd made them sound.

Roxas sat down on a cardboard box near where Hayner was sitting, and Axel cast a telling glance at the blonde beside Roxas, who was currently sitting in the only real chair in the room. But when Hayner just stared right back at him he realized the chair was most definitely not going to be relinquished to him, and plopped down on the box with Roxas.

"So Axel, where you from?" The first question had come from Olette, as soon as he had gotten settled in.

"Hollow Bastion."

"How old are you?" This time it was Pence who asked.

"22." He replied with his well practiced lie, casting a quick glance at Roxas, who nodded in recognition. This was easy enough so far.

"What are you, a _pedophile_?" Hayner suddenly demanded in disgust.

Axel stared at him, completely shocked as just how blunt the question had been, "W-what? No!"

"Then what were you even doing at the club that night anyway? And what are you doing here with Roxas now? The age difference is like…"

"It's seven years difference, Hayner." Pence finished, watching as his friend paused mid-rant to attempt the math.

Axel let out an exasperated sigh. These kids, especially that Hayner one, were crazy, even if they did have a bit of a point. _Oh well, he'll catch up to me eventually_ Axel thought with a chuckle, but he couldn't exactly tell them that. "I already explained this to Roxas," he replied, his tone suggesting irritation at having to repeat himself, "I didn't even know that place had a teen night or whatever, I just happened to pick the wrong day to go there. And yes, I realize we're in a rather atypical relationship, but I don't really care."

It was hard for Roxas not to laugh at the irony of just how many times Axel had had to assert that one fact, for how many different reasons just today, let alone since the two of them had first met. He felt bad for the vampire; he'd had his own apprehensions about the relationship at first, but now it seemed like Axel was the one who was being put under pressure as a result of it. He leaned back to rest against Axel, who wrapped his arms around him.

The others' expressions had softened considerably, and Olette was smiling broadly at them. "What now?" Axel asked, irritated that their intense gazes were completely ruining his moment with Roxas.

"Nothing, it's just you two are obviously really happy together." Olette replied.

"Yeah, that's all we care," Pence continued, "As long as Roxas is happy, and you're treating him alright, then we're happy."

"But if we find out anything different is happening, we're going to have to kill you. So you'd better watch it." Hayner finished, but the wide grin he was wearing considerably reduced his threat.

"Thanks guys." Roxas responded, and Axel just gave him a confused sort of look, not sure what he was thanking them for.

Ok, so Roxas' friends were pretty intense. At least they hadn't tried to kill him.

oOo

So yeah…this update took me FOREVER. Sorry about that, everyone. Truthfully, I've been so obsessed with Tales of the Abyss for the past month and a half that everything else just sort of took a back seat haha.

Still not a lot of plot in this chapter, though…I'm getting there I swear!


	7. Chapter 7

**Title: **Dance of Death

**Summary: **had always thought the fictitious vampire stories in books, the movies and the like were just that: fictional. He never thought they could become reality, and he certainly never expected to find himself right in the middle of one.

Main pairing is akuroku, though there will be some minor xigdem in the future, and possibly sokai. Very brief mention in this chapter of almost sort of Pence x Olette (Penlette? Rofl) but not really. Rated T.

**Disclaimer: **Kingdom Hearts and all the characters therein belong to SquareEnix and Disney, not yours truly.

Chapter 7

Roxas groaned as he stepped into the kitchen. As if dealing with Sora and Riku everyday at school wasn't enough, they really were not the way he wanted to start his Saturday morning. And yet there they were sitting at the table- a road block between him and his precious energy providing breakfast. When he walked in Sora gave him a mournful look, he looked at Roxas like that all the time since he and Axel had started seriously dating a few weeks ago- like he was beyond salvation.

"I'm not dead yet." Roxas said to him casually.

"What do you mean yet?" Was the accusatory reply.

"Everybody dies, Sora," Noting his brother's horrified expression, Roxas decided to continue, "but don't worry, I don't plan on it happening to me anytime soon."

"Your _boyfriend _probably has other plans." Sora muttered, and as usual the word boyfriend was said with a little extra contempt.

"Actually, you're wrong. Axel feels the same way I do; we talked about it a few weeks ago."

Sora grunted; Roxas knew he was just frustrated because he was running out of legitimate reasons to dislike the vampire.

Meanwhile, Riku hadn't looked up from the newspaper he and Sora had been reading when Roxas walked into the kitchen. That was strange- Roxas had never seen Sora read the newspaper before in his life. He peeked over Riku's shoulder to see what they were reading:

**Recent Murders the Act of a Serial Killer?**

An unidentified body was found just outside Halloween Town late last night. Police believe that this might be the most recent act in a string of murders taking place throughout Hollow Bastion County in the past two months. "It's likely that this is the work of a single individual, or an organized group," says the Halloween Town chief of police, "although there's no apparent connection between the victims and the time and place of the attacks at this time, the method the attacks have been committed in similar ways." In every case the body of the victim had been completely mutilated beyond recognition. However, as no finger prints have been found at the crimes scenes, and there are no obvious murder weapons or motives, the police have yet to name any suspects…

The article went on for most of the page, but Roxas stopped reading there. The article was familiar; it called to mind the news cast they had watched at the pizza parlor on his first date with Axel, the one that the vampire had watched so intently. He turned to Riku, "You think vampires did this?"

"I have no idea what did this." Riku replied, "It could have been vampires, maybe something else- but whatever it was, it's doubtful that a human would be capable of this."

Roxas wanted to ask if Riku believed Axel's coven was in anyway involved (so that he could defend their innocence, although he really had no proof either way) but the doorbell rang before he had the chance.

"Who's that?" Sora asked, confused. Despite his curiosity, however, he made no move to actually get up and answer the door, so Roxas rolled his eyes and went to do it himself.

He was not expecting to find Axel and Demyx standing on the front step. Axel had gone away to Hollow Bastion earlier in the week, and wasn't supposed to be back until later that evening.

"Uh…hey!" He was happy to see Axel, of course, but he was more than a little surprised as well, and caught totally off guard. There was also the fact that he had just gotten out of bed, was still wearing his pajamas and had bed head. Juxtaposed against Axel who, as usual, was making a simple t-shirt and jeans look incredibly sexy seemingly without even trying, this realization was even worse.

"Hey, we ended up leaving early this morning so I figured I would stop by and surprise you, since we were passing through." Axel leaned down and kissed him, and all Roxas could think was how he hadn't even brushed his teeth yet that morning. Thankfully either Axel didn't notice or he opted to ignore it.

"You guys can come on in, I was just going to get some breakfast."

Sora wore a look of absolute contempt as Roxas walked back into the kitchen with Axel and Demyx in tow. Demyx's eyes fell on Riku, a slightly disgusted look spreading across his face, "Roxas, you didn't say you were friends with Riku Jenova."

"Relax," Axel said to him, "I already knew."

"And he's Sora's friend, just for the record." Roxas added.

Demyx looked at Sora for the first time, his eyes widening, "Holy shit, he looks just like you!"

"We're twins." Sora replied with a condescending tone, "and you must be one of _them_ too, right?"

"Wait he knows, too?"

"He's Riku's apprentice." Axel replied distractedly. He had begun to read the newspaper article over Riku's shoulder.

"Geez, Axel, not only is the kid you're dating a human, his brother is a hunter; you must _really_ want to piss the council off."

But it seemed Axel wasn't listening to him, or if he was he didn't respond.

"You noticed this too, huh?" He said to Riku, indicating the article.

"Know anything about it?"

Demyx shook his head, joining in on the conversation, "No, we've been looking into the past few days at headquarters, but we didn't really find anything. I doubt we know anything you don't."

"So no clues as to what might be doing this."

"No, not really." Axel answered.

"Just that it's some_thing_." Sora added particular emphasis to the word thing.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Was Axel's reply, "there's no proof that humans weren't involved in this. There's no proof of anything."

"What are you talking about?" Riku asked incredulously, "A human would have no reason to do something like this."

"And neither would a vampire, really."

"When a vampire attacks people, it's called hunting-"

"And when a human does it, it's called mass murder." Axel replied indignantly, and Roxas could feel the vampire steadily getting pissed off, "The point is, as long as there's no obvious motive behind the attacks no one has any reason for it. And no vampire in their right mind would pull a stunt that attracts as much attention as this- they'd be asking to get their ass kicked."

"Or much worse." Demyx added.

"The lack of prints isn't explained by a vampire, either," Riku continued pensively, "Do you think maybe it was werewolves?"

"Werewolves?!" Apparently no one else in the room was as shocked by this suggestion as Roxas was- which was hardly surprising but was aggravating none-the-less- and no one responded to him.

"We thought of that, too," Demyx explained, "We _doubt_ they had anything to do with it, but Xigbar went to talk to them about it, anyway, since he's close friends with their alpha."

"I didn't even know there was a pack of werewolves in the area," Riku replied.

Axel nodded, "In Halloween Town. But besides maybe having some inside information on last night's attack, it's unlikely they'll be very helpful. Like Demyx said, they probably have nothing to do with this, so they're not gunna want to get themselves involved."

Riku contemplated Axel's statement for a moment. "That makes sense- not wanting to involve themselves, I mean. But it seems like you're all pretty actively involved in this, which means you must at least think it has something to do with you. Which means you were lying when you said you didn't know anything earlier."

"Well, technically we don't _know_ anything." Demyx replied with a nervous laugh.

"But you think you do. So spill it, or else I'm going to assume that it incriminates your coven, and that will just be one more problem on your hands."

Axel and Demyx exchanged nervous glances. Axel groaned.

"We think that the creature behind the attacks is a true vampire." He answered.

"That's impossible; there are no true vampires anymore."

"Sure there are, you just need to summon them."

Riku looked completely stumped, so Axel continued, "There are twelve known true vampires, but people decided they were causing too much trouble, so they were all locked away in various objects over a thousand years ago. So they can be released, but it's like a ritual; it requires a blood sacrifice, they're totally at the mercy of whoever summons them and once they're done doing the persons bidding they go back to where they came from."

Riku looked skeptical. "Why haven't I ever heard about this before?"

"Well, once upon a time, when most people still believed in magic, the idea of this might have actually gotten passed along by word of mouth. But now who would you hear it from? And who would actually believe them, you know?" Demyx answered.

"Besides, we don't really want people knowing about it." Axel added.

"Who's we?" Sora asked curtly, and Roxas shook his head; he suspected his brother just desperately wanted to be part of the conversation. He personally was overwhelmed enough just listening to it all.

"Vampires; all of us. We're at the top of the food chain, after all, why would we want someone around who could compete with that? So the grand council decided that each of the covens would be put in charge of protecting one of the artifacts that houses a true vampire; to guard it against ever seeing the light of day again. Got it memorized?"

"But, if the person who summons it has total control, couldn't vampires use that to get more power over the other covens?" Roxas asked, finally feeling like he had some footing in the conversation again.

"They probably would do that, if it were possible." Axel explained, "But like I said earlier, a little bit of blood needs to be sacrificed for the summons to work, and in order for something to be sacrificed it needs to be alive, so vampires _can't _do it. That's why putting us in charge of the artifacts is actually a fool-proof way of protecting them. It's also why I say we can't rule out the possibility of humans here; if a true vampire is what's killing these people then it's a human who's telling it to do so."

"But how did a human get a hold of one of these artifacts, if you're all protecting them so well?" Sora asked.

"That's what we don't know," Demyx said, "that and which true vampire it is."

"Except that it's not Specumalum, which is the one trapped in the mirror we have," Axel added, "and I just double checked that, for the record."

"So we're basically right where we started then," Sora replied with a sigh.

"Basically you can forget about it," Axel corrected, "this is way over your head. _Both_ of your heads."

He added the last part with an accusatory glance at Riku. Riku wasn't fazed, "Just keep me informed."

"I don't have to do anything like that. And I'm not going to. This is too much for you to handle, and it's none of your business."

Axel's tone was final, and apparently Riku knew better than to argue with an irritated vampire because he let the subject drop. Sora didn't seem so willing to accept that answer, and although he didn't say anything the look on his face conveyed his aggravation well enough. A silence fell over the group then, and Demyx was fidgeting somewhat uncomfortably.

"Hey, well, that's not why we're here, right Axel?" He asked in a suggestive tone, nudging the red head with his elbow; Axel just glared at him and smacked the hand away. Sora glared at Axel. Roxas rolled his eyes.

"Can I at least get dressed first?" He asked, indicating his baggy t-shirt and sweatpants. "I'll be quick. You guys can wait in the living room, if you wanna sit."

He showed Axel and Demyx into the living room before heading upstairs; there had been two seats open at the kitchen table, but he didn't think it would be a good idea to leave the vampires in the same room with Riku and Sora without himself there to keep everyone civil. They seemed to take the hint and followed him. Roxas doubted they wanted to be in the same room anymore than necessary anyway.

"Actually, I'll just meet you back home later." Demyx spoke up before they had taken a seat.

Axel nodded, and fished around in his pants pocket before removing a set of keys. He tossed them to Demyx, and as they flew through the air Roxas caught the glint of the word _Cadillac_ embossed on Axel's car key before Demyx deftly caught them. It only then occurred to him that he'd never actually seen Axel driving before, or even stopped to consider if the vampire did drive or not. He quickly craned his neck to peek out the living room window, and sure enough there was a shiny red escalade parked in his driveway. He wasn't particularly surprised that the redhead would be driving around in something so flashy.

"Later, man." Demyx said as he headed toward the door, the keys jingling in his hand as he waved to them over his shoulder. They said their good-byes and Roxas climbed the stairs to his bedroom.

He was just about to pull his shirt over his head when he heard the bedroom door open behind him. Assuming it was just Sora coming to lecture him about Axel again he didn't even bother turning around, and so he jumped a little when the lithe arms wrapped around him.

He turned around in Axel's embrace so that he was facing the red head, "You didn't knock. I could have been naked, you know." Axel didn't respond verbally, but thanks to his empathy Roxas got what he was thinking pretty clearly anyway, "You're a pervert."

Axel smirked, "Yep." Roxas rolled his eyes, but then brought his head forward to rest on Axel's chest. The red head continued to embrace him, but his cool hands slid slowly down Roxas' bare back until they came to rest on his behind, where they gave a quick squeeze. Roxas shot his head up to look Axel in the face, intent on inquiring where the vampire's sudden forward behavior had come from, but he was never given the chance. As soon as his lips were in view Axel's came crashing down on them, in a kiss far needier and more rushed than any they had shared before. Realizing that there was no chance Axel was ever going to let him get it on Roxas finally dropped the shirt he had still been holding, using his newly freed hands to run through Axel's hair, and scratch at his scalp. In return Axel moaned into their kiss, breaking it off just long enough to say, "I missed you." Not even completely removing his mouth from Roxas' as he did so.

Well, that was relatively obvious in Roxas' opinion, considering Axel's current behavior. And although he certainly couldn't complain about the affection Axel was showering on him, and even though he has missed his boyfriend considerably as well, he had to admit that he was surprised at just how _horny_ Axel was after just a weekend apart. Axel was pushing him now, forcing him to backpedal, and Roxas knew he was being directed toward his bed. He wasn't so sure how he felt about that. He didn't mind a heated make out session like this one, but he couldn't say he was ready to take their relationship to the next level quite yet; they'd barely been together for two months. He couldn't be sure that sex was what Axel was getting at, but Axel's actions were definitely suggesting it.

As expected the back of his knees collided with the end of his bed, and Roxas hesitantly allowed himself to be pushed down on it. Axel didn't do anything further, though, he just climbed on top of Roxas and continued to kiss him, except now his cool hands were running up and down Roxas' chest, and the blonde couldn't help but moan at the new attention he was receiving.

"Wait, Axel," he said as Axel broke off their kiss for a breather, getting it out as quickly as possible for the red head had a chance to start again, and sitting up as he did so. He might not quite be ready to make sex the next step in his and Axel's relationship, but there was something else he wanted to try and he figured now was the best time to bring it up, both because Axel was most definitely in the mood and because it would distract him from the idea of sex, if that was really what he had been thinking, "There's something I've been meaning to ask you."

"Ask away," Axel replied sincerely; it was a testament to his incredible ability to lie, because Roxas could feel Axel's irritation at being asked now of all times, when he would obviously rather be touching than talking.

Roxas saw no reason not to comply with Axel's desire, and he didn't want to kill the mood besides, so he ran the back of his hand slowly up and down Axel's cheek. Axel closed his eyes and leaned his head into Roxas' hand which, contrary to the vampire's typical sexy demeanor, was completely adorable. "Remember that time that we were just talking in your room? You mentioned that when a vampire bites you it…it feels good."

Axel's head snapped up and away from Roxas' hand, a serious look on his face. "Yes…" his tone and his mood has immediately become apprehensive.

Roxas figured that Axel would understand what he was getting at pretty clearly, but that had definitely not been the reaction that he'd been expecting. It was a little off-putting, but Roxas continued anyway, although not as confident as before, "W-well, I've been thinking about it a lot since then and I thought maybe we could try it?"

"You want me to bite you?"

Roxas nodded, "Yes."

"No."

Obviously Roxas' suggestion had completely killed the mood Axel had been in, because the red head had already back away to the very edge of the bed, and now he was getting up off of it. Roxas was shocked. "…What? Why not?"

Axel was actually pacing across Roxas bedroom floor now, "Just, no. I can't…I won't."

"But you said yourself that you do it all the time. People-_strangers_-pay you to do it."

"This is different. There's no way it's gunna happen."

"Axel, I ju-"

"Never again!"

Axel had abruptly stopped his pacing. The room fell uncomfortably silent, and the embarrassed look on Axel's face suggested he had even surprised himself with that outburst. Roxas was more than a little hurt by Axel's rejection- he didn't understand why Axel would refuse to share with him something seemingly so special that he did for total strangers almost every night. But now he was just confused, "What do you mean 'again'?"

If it was possible, Axel looked even paler than normal, "I've made mistakes in my life Rox. I've lived 800 years, how could I not? You're way too important to me to risk another one is all."

Roxas frowned; Axel was lying. He shook his head, "No, that's not it. There's something else you're not telling me. It's like when Demyx and I first met, he said it was nice to finally see my face or something like that; this has to do with that, doesn't it? You promised you wouldn't hide anything from me anymore"

Axel wasn't making eye contact with him, and for a moment or two he didn't say anything either, until finally, "His name was Ven."

"…Who?"

Axel began to pace again as he relayed his explanation, "When I was still alive, he was my personal servant. But he was also…a lot more than that. Even after I had changed, when just about everyone in the palace was afraid to come near me or even look at me, he stood by me. He was never afraid. It meant a lot to me, at the time.

"I never chose to be turned into this, I had no control over it at all, and so I sort of rejected the change, so I refused to feed off of people, which was incredibly hard for me to do so soon after the change. I survived mainly off of livestock at the time; mostly just to keep myself from attacking anyone that came near me. But then one day, I can't even remember how, Ven and I realized that I could drink from him, just a little, without hurting him. That it was pleasurable for him even. So we started doing it, regularly.

"We didn't know anything about how much blood it was safe for a person to lose or anything like that back then, so we probably did it too often, honestly. And I still wasn't very good at controlling myself, or knowing when to stop, but I would only take just a little if he ever started to feel sick or lightheaded or anything he would let me know and I would always stop."

Axel paused, but Roxas could tell that he wasn't done with his story, so he didn't interrupt. He could tell Axel wasn't having an easy time telling him this and he respected that; the red head seemed to be taking a moment to compose himself before he continued, "But I was so young then- we were so stupid to actually believe it was safe for me to be feeding from him like that. I was so stupid. And one day I just couldn't control myself. He just went limp in my arms; when I realized what I had done I tried to change him, but it was too late. I killed him. I hated myself for it- I had really loved him. I loved him for a long time after that. I probably still love him a little."

Roxas knew Axel was finished speaking then, and a heavy silence had followed behind his story. He wanted desperately to break it, but wasn't sure what he could possibly say; Axel's tale had certainly shocked him. He wasn't upset, however; in 800 years it wasn't like he had expected Axel had never had a more serious relationship than theirs- that would be a little extreme. But he was still confused, "Axel, I…can't even imagine what that must have been like for you," Axel had come to sit on the edge of the bed again, Roxas moved closer to put a reassuring hand over the vampire's cold one, "But I still don't understand. What does that have to do with me?"

Axel sighed, looking at Roxas apologetically. His behavior was making the blonde incredibly uneasy, "Roxas, the thing is…you look just like Ven. I mean, you and Sora are twins, and even he can't compare to the similarities that you share with Ven physically. It's unbelievable."

Roxas' hand fell away from Axel's. He felt as if the wind had been suddenly knocked out of him, and he was barely able to speak, "So what you're saying is that I'm just…a replacement."

Obviously that response had been exactly what Axel was afraid of, and he began to get panicky, "No! No, Roxas, I know it sounds bad but, you have to believe me; it's not like that at all."

Axel's voice sounded far away to Roxas, muted, and he was barely listening anyway. It made so much sense; Demyx's strange comment that day they had first met, and Axel's sudden adamant refusal to drink Roxas' blood, because it reminded him too much of Ven. But worst of all, it explained the feeling that Axel experienced whenever they embraced or shared an intimate moment; that feeling of belonging and comfort and happiness that Roxas had thought he'd been bringing to Axel. Now he had a name for that emotion; love. Except it wasn't love for Roxas that Axel felt when they were together. It was for Ven. Roxas thought he might be sick he suddenly felt so nauseous. He didn't look at Axel as he spoke, "How am I supposed to just believe you? After everything you just told me?"

His statement had crushed Axel and Roxas could feel it, but he didn't feel guilty since it was nothing compared to the hurt he was experiencing for himself. Axel wrapped his arms around him, and even though Roxas in no way responded to the embrace he did not let go. He placed a kiss on the top of Roxas' head and allowed his head to hang there as he spoke, his voice somewhat muffled by Roxas' blonde locks, "Please just trust me. I won't lie to you; the fact that you look like him is the reason you caught my attention in the club that night, and it's why I wanted to get to know you. But then I did get to know you, and you're really nothing like him, besides your looks. But I don't care because I like you for you and not him. Ven died a long time ago, and I know that, and I know you're not him and I don't want you to be. I need you to believe me."

If Roxas could have just fully believed Axel and forgotten this conversation had ever happened, he would have been glad to. But how could he after everything he'd been feeling all this time? He was willing to try, but he had a condition first.

"Prove it."

Axel pulled away so he could look Roxas in the eye, "I'm more than willing to prove it, but I don't know how you expe-"

Apparently the look on Roxas' face was enough for Axel to get the message, because he stopped speaking, and his face fell. He didn't say anything right away, but then why a sigh said, "If that's what it takes to prove it to you."

He crawled forward on the bed towards Roxas, until he forced the blonde to lie back down to avoid a collision. Once Roxas was on his back again Axel, who was hanging over him, arms on either side of his head, leaned down and placed a chaste kiss on his lips, then trailing more kissed down to his neck. But he didn't stop there as Roxas expected, instead continuing down to just below his collarbone, where he kissed more tenderly, his lips lingering for a few extra seconds before rather suddenly sinking his teeth into Roxas' flesh.

Roxas cried out at the unexpected pain, but it was quickly forgotten as he was flooded with an overwhelmingly pleasant feeling. Even though Axel was draining him of his blood it felt more like his entire body was being pumped full with a warm, soothing sensation. But he felt lighter, and tingly, and fluttery. It was difficult to describe, but it was absolutely incredible.

All too soon Roxas found himself coming back down to earth. He didn't even realize he had shut his eyes until he had to open them, and he looked down to find that Axel had stopped biting him, but still had his lips firmly planted on the spot, probably putting pressure on it so the bleeding would stop. They made eye contact, and Roxas could tell that Axel was trying to look concerned, but the look in his eyes suggested he had also gotten a considerable amount of pleasure from the experience.

Apparently satisfied that the bite had closed up Axel rolled over so he was snuggled next to Roxas. They kissed again, and when Roxas noticed the coppery taste of his own blood on Axel's lips he was a little surprised to find that he was excited by it more than he was freaked out.

"How do you feel?" Axel asked, running a hand through Roxas' hair, "Do you want me to get you something to eat?"

"No, please stay here." Roxas replied hastily, clinging closer to the vampire. He wasn't sure why he suddenly felt so needy of Axel after everything that had happened that day, but he definitely wasn't going anywhere anytime soon if Roxas had anything to say about it.

Axel smiled, "Alright, don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. It's a relief- for a minute there I was worried you'd be telling me to leave and never come back."

Roxas sighed, "I don't think I could ever do that. It's bittersweet though. I would have rather that we did this because it was something you wanted to do, not something you had to do."

"Rox, it's not that I didn't want to, because I did. I'm just a little scared of myself. I couldn't take the kind of heartbreak I experienced before a second time."

A frown, "Except it wouldn't be the same, because you don't love me like you loved him."

"Trust me, I could not think of a single more devastating thing that could happen to me right now than if I were to hurt you, let alone…let alone kill you."

"But still-"

"Roxas, could you really look me in the eye right now and honestly tell me that you loved me?"

Roxas shook his head. Axel was very important to him, but he didn't think it was really love yet.

"I couldn't do it either. We just met, baby. But I have to say, I'm definitely falling for you hard and fast. Today was definitely proof of that, I can't remember the last time I was as scared as I was when I thought you might leave me."

"But you couldn't ever love me- not until you stopped loving Ven." Roxas sighed; after 800 years of Axel being in love, the odds were against him there.

But Axel just rolled his eyes, "Wrong again. There is a good chance that I'll never completely stop loving Ven, but that doesn't mean I can't love you, as well, or even come to love you more. Love isn't as unconditional and unmoving as everyone thinks it is- take it from someone who's been around long enough to know better than most."

Roxas smiled; Axel was right about one thing for sure, he definitely knew about love much better than Roxas, who had never been in love himself, would. And as usual, Axel also knew exactly what to say to make him feel better when he was upset about something. Their relationship was different now than it had been before, but thanks to Axel's comforting words he was sure that they could survive the change, and come out stronger because of it.

He suddenly yawned, and noticed that his eyelids were feeling particularly heavy. Apparently Axel's bite had taken a little more out of him than he'd realized. He looked up at the vampire as another yawn slipped past his lips.

Axel just smiled, "Don't worry- I'll be right here."

Within seconds Roxas had fallen asleep in Axel's embrace.

oOo

Ok, so it's been forever and a day since I last updated AND this is shorter than normal x.x. I apologize for that, but life always seems to get in the way haha. I'm on winter break for the rest of the month, and I'm hoping to have another update out before going back to school, but I won't promise since I think we've all come to realize how miserable I am about updating by now. But, the next updating should be longer and rather interesting, and hopefully make up for the wait for this one. Sigh.

Also, I apologize for the name of the demon, and in advance for the names of any others I introduce in the future. I'm terrible at naming everything, so they are basically just really obvious latin words mushed together. Also, I've never taken a single class of latin, so I found the words on an online dictionary and combined them myself. Those of you who are familiar with latin, please forgive me if I have butchered the language.


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